SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIMENSION OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN ALBANIA

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that the main factors contributing to the need to rethink higher education institutions today are linked to the advent of the global age. Although Albania is not yet feeling the full force of the ensuing pressures, higher education here is likely to be affected very soon by globalization-related processes. Higher education all over the world, including Albania, is no longer the unique part of the public sector that it used to be, either in explicit political declarations, in public perceptions, or in practical terms. Higher education is doubly affected by the local post-1989 transformations and by more profound and more long-lasting global transformations . To neglect either of the two levels of analysis is to misunderstand a decade of failed attempts to reform higher education systems in the country. The main purpose of this study is to carry out the main issues related to the social and cultural dimensions of the transformation process of the Albanian Higher Education and their impact to the globalization process. The transformation of the higher education system consists on reflecting the changes that are taking place in our society, strengthening the values and practices of our new democracy, redressing the past inequalities, serving a new social order, meeting the national needs and responding to new realities and opportunities. Higher education plays a central role in the social, cultural and economic development of modern societies. In Albania today, the challenge is to redress past inequalities and to transform the higher education system to serve a new social order, to meet pressing national needs, and to respond to new realities and opportunities.