Instead of solving the problem of graduates lacking the right qualifications for the job market, low quality private universities could make the situation worse
Tirana Times
Foreign and Albanian managers among our readers often gripe about their inability to find properly qualified staff to fill available positions in a country where unemployment is in the double digits. There are several reasons for this, but in light of our cover story for this issue, we’d like to address education aspect.
For years, managers have expressed concern of discord between what Albanian universities are producing in terms of graduates and the needs of companies operating in the country. In addition to simply studying in fields where the market is saturated: like social sciences, the quality of the graduates often leaves to be desired.
“I can’t expect much from a system where the grades have a price,” one American businessman recently told us. “From what I understand, it is ‘this much for an A, this much for a B, etc.'”
He was speaking about public universities and the corruption of university professors by students. The private education system was though to be a miracle cure for the problem. But now there are also grave concerns about the quality of education in the very large number of private universities that have started operations in just a few years.
As our cover story points out, private university professors feel even more pressured to give passing grades to unqualified students because of the high cost the students are paying to attend the university makes them feel entitled to good grades and a diploma. That spells even more trouble when these students will join their public university fellow graduates in the job market in the near future.
The graduation of students who are not ready to meet job market realities has consequences that go beyond financial implications of the tuition and time loss in school.
In the next five to ten years, Albania could face an entire generation of undereducated college graduates who are unemployed and can’t find a job in their field of study, either here or abroad. They will be hopeless and angry against a system that promised a return on investment and in reality delivered no proper job or income.
Beyond the quality of education itself, the situation today is problematic because most of the private universities generally attract students who wouldn’t make it into public universities to begin with, meaning the quality of many students is low, usually a disincentive to quality education in private universities.
And for a higher education system that is already viewed with suspicion by employers, graduates of private universities could be in for an even rougher ride.
The rapidly growing number of private universities and the way they are being advertised is also an indication that there can be little accounting for quality.
Often the first step of a private university is to come up with a name and a price tag – all other considerations come later. If we put ourselves in the shoes of a perspective employer, we can’t stop but be extremely cautious.
And if the quality of education is poor, pushing students into universities – be they public or private – simply delays the unemployment crisis. And it’s bad policy.
