MINELRES: IWPR: Macedonia: Albanian Education Coup

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MACEDONIA: ALBANIAN EDUCATION COUP

Government signals willingness to bring Tetovo University into state
system.

By Salajdin Salihu in Tetovo

In an effort to soothe ethnic hostilities, the Macedonian government has
moved closer to legalising Tetovo University, TU, which for nearly 10
years has operated on the fringes of the education system teaching
students from the ethnic Albanian minority.

The university's status has long been a burning issue between Albanians
and the Macedonian majority.  Several Albanians died and many were
arrested in an attempt by the Skopje authorities to shut it down by
force.

Despite the absence of state funding, most Albanians prefer to attend
TU's 13 faculties rather than go to mainstream universities where they
would have to study in the Macedonian language.

A shift in the official position was signalled on March 27 when
education minister Aziz Polozani, himself an Albanian, told parliament,
"There is a clear need for a larger number of high education
institutions for Albanians...There is political will to include
institutions such as Tetovo University in the system."

The university was established in 1994 by a group of Albanian
intellectuals led by its rector Fadil Sulejmani.  In July 2000, the
international community provided funds to establish the University of
Southeast Europe, USEE, in Tetovo.  But Albanians largely shunned it as
inadequate, saying education should be provided by state funds rather
than private institutions.

The new official stance followed an agreement on March 17 to start talks
between TU authorities and the Albanian section of the government, the
Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.  According to local media, the
two sides agreed to form a seven-member "initiative commission" to
cooperate closely with the party in power for the legalisation of TU.

The agreement incorporates registration of the university as a legal
institution for which the state is obliged to provide appropriate funds.

Macedonian officials have repeatedly expressed scepticism about the
professional level of TU lecturers and their programmes.  These
standards would have to be evaluated by the commission which accords
accreditation for educational institutions.

The acting rector of TU, Naxhmedin Beadini, said government conditions
for proper criteria would be accepted so that Tetovo would reach the
same level as the country's two state-financed universities.  "We will
always closely cooperate with the ministry of education towards
fulfilling these criteria," Beadini said.

Tale Geramitcioski, deputy minister of education, said on March 31, "The
process of legalisation has started... but we should expect that it
would only be applied to those TU faculties which meet the standards
required by law."

Geramitcioski disagreed with the DUI`s announcement that TU could be
legalised by September. He thought evaluation and accreditation could
take more than nine months although "if they have their entire
documentation prepared maybe it will take less time".

Legalisation of the university would bring recognition for the
certificates of Albanian students, who up to now have not been accepted
by the state institutions.  Macedonian media speculated that the number
already graduated is around 8,000.

The agreement to start legalisation talks came after a week of protests
by TU students.  The protesters wanted internal reforms at the
university, including the replacement of Sulejmani and the start of
moves to make it official.

The students expressed doubts about the agreement but said they would
give its signatories time to deliver results.

All Albanian parties that have been in government promised that TU would
be legalised - none of them achieved it.

In a TV debate several months ago, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski
said it was not the government that held up the process.  The problem
was that no demand had been received from any Albanian party for TU to
be registered as a private educational institution, a preliminary for
legalisation.

Analysts said this comment confirmed that the tensions over TU during
all these years were caused not only by Macedonian authorities but also
by internal Albanian differences.

The university's finances now come mainly from the students themselves
and from Albanians working in Western Europe. However, after the
beginning of the protests in March, the foundations of Albanians in
Switzerland and Germany stopped all funding until the tensions calmed
down and Sulejmani withdrew from all TU bodies.

Sulejmani, recently elected as president of the university's senate,
enraged students when he replaced the acting rector, Ramiz Avdili.
Students pointed to Sulejmani as the main obstacle for reform and
legalisation. The board of students went even further, accusing him of
installing a "Stalinist dictatorship".

Sulejmani said the student protests were "ill-intentioned and organised
by the enemies of the TU whose goal was to leave the Albanians without a
university".

One leading protester, economics student Shkodrane Zenuni, said, "We
believe TU is not the private property of Sulejmani.  He declared
himself a life-long king of TU and established a dictatorship."

Salajdin Salihu is an associate editor at the weekly newspaper Lobi.


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ISSN: 1477-7932 Copyright (c) 2003 The Institute for War & Peace
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BALKAN CRISIS REPORT No. 422