Massivization of Higher Education: Evidence from Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia - Academic Study on Higher Education Quality

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Elsa

Massivization of higher education across Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia is examined through the quality lens of two key stakeholders: professors and students. The study links deteriorating education quality to deteriorating teaching competencies, inadequate infrastructure, and weakened professors’ ethics, while also identifying outdated teaching methods, insufficient enrollment quotas, and skill mismatch with the labor market. It concludes that low institutional monitoring and missing admissions quotas enable unethical behavior and deepen HE quality decline.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Higher education expansion and quality erosion

Stakeholders in higher education

Arguments for mass education

Policy dissemination and stakeholder engagement

Enrollment trends in the Western Balkans

Massivization of Higher Education: Evidence from Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia By Dugagjin Sokoli􀀍, Albulenë Kastrati􀁲, Mirvan Xhemaili 􀁱 & Elona Kodhel• There is a significant expansion of universities in the Western Balkans and an increasing number of students enrolled. In a region where economic growth is sluggish and youth unemployment is high, education is one of the key proxies to determine future development. This rapid expansion of universities has not been accompanied by the provision of resources to maintain ambitious standards, quality, and relevance. This study examines the factors leading to a deterioration of education quality, tackling teaching competencies, infrastructure, and professors’ethics. Using original data, this study investigates the HE quality from the perspective of two main stakeholders–professors and students–in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. The study points out to outdated teaching methods, lack of enrolment quotas and skill mismatch with the labour market. It all boils down to low institutional monitoring criteria and lack of admission quotas, creating space for unethical behaviour and massivization of HE. Keywords: teaching quality, massivisation, skill mismatch, unethical behavior Introduction Education has been a vital part of the revolution of Europe that has seen various countries on the continent and dominate the international scene (Subang, & Selangor, 2018). However, education has not had a remarkable impact in some European countries, especially Western Balkans, despite a massive engagement of the youth in higher education and the opening of additional universities. Even though the Western Balkans have largely relied on foreign donations and interventions from organizations such as the European Union to bolster the quality of higher education in universities and colleges, the quality of higher education administered in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia has eroded (Parameswaran & Glowacka, 2015) . The success and failures ofthe quality of higher education have been largely attributed to the massivization of the education sector and teaching methods employed in tertiary institutions. There is a considerable expansion of several universities in the Western Balkans (WB) and an increasing number of student enrolments. The rapid expansion of universities has not been accompanied by the provision of resources to maintain high education standards, quality, and relevance. Higher education (HE) institutions have relied much on a sufficient quantity of outputs without much interest in the adequacy 􀀍Assistant Professor, Faculty of Dentistry, University for Business and Technology, Kosovo . 􀁲Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Bridgewater State University, USA. 􀁱Associate Professor, Faculty of English Language, AAB College, Kosovo . •Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, ‘Fan S. Noli’ University ofKorça, Albania. of quality, even less so on research, which plunged the WB’s labour market with large numbers of output that have caused disequilibrium in the labour market. Education policies, in the respective countries of the study, are usually disseminated via a top-bottom progression, starting from the Ministries of Education, Accreditation Agencies and other governmental agencies, often ignoring relevant stakeholders and particularly those engaged hands-on in the process, such as professors and students (Figure 1). This paper aims to get a closer look at higher education (HE) massivizationin the context of the WB landscape by engaging in the dialogue of two main stakeholders ofthe HE sector – academic staff and students. We define and argue the presence of mass education based on two main arguments. In the WB, a) almost every high school graduate has access to universities, regardless of their performance, as some of the private colleges do not apply entrance exams or, if applied, are usually formal, and b) the skill mismatch between demand and

FAQs

Which stakeholders does the study focus on to evaluate higher education quality?

The study evaluates HE quality from the perspective of two main stakeholders: professors and students in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia.

What factors does the study cite as drivers of deteriorating education quality?

It highlights deteriorating teaching competencies, inadequate infrastructure, and professors’ ethics, alongside outdated teaching methods, lack of enrollment quotas, and skill mismatch with the labor market.

How does the study explain the link between university expansion and unethical behavior?

It argues that low institutional monitoring criteria and the lack of admissions quotas create space for unethical behavior, enabling the massivization of higher education.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Elsa