1. Public Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, PAAHE
Improving the ranking model of the Albanian higher education institutions
Niko Hyka
PAAHE, Head of Statistics and analyses sector

2. Presentation Outlines
Higher Education Institutions and Programmes in Albania
CHE – PAAHE, First Ranking process in 2011
Methodology and results
Problems and recommendations
Improvements of ranking model
Infrastructure and new model for next ranking processes
APAAL

3. Organizational Structure of Higher Education in Albania
Council of Ministers
Ministry of Education
Council for Higher
Education
Conference of Rectors
Accreditation
Council
Academy of Sciences
Public Accreditation
Agency, PAAHE
Student Council
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
APAAL

4. 58 HEIs Public , 14 HEIs Private, 44 HEIs
Geographical distribution of public & private of higher education institutions in Albania
Public , 14 HEIs
6 universities in Tirana, 6 regional
1- university of Arts
1 -military academy
5 regional faculties (branch)
Total 650 programmes
Private, 44 HEIs
34 HEIs in Tirana, 10 regional HEI-s
7 universities, 26 higher schools, 5 colleges, 6 academy
Total 600 HE programmes ●
Peshkopi 58
HEIs
Berat

5. PAAHE DIRECTOR Promotion and Quality Assessment Sector 6 Persons
Statistics and Analyses Sector
4 Persons
Publication and support services Sector
4 persons
PAAHE is responsible for:
Evaluation of New and existing HE Institutions and Programs
Evaluation: process, procedure, peer team, follow up,
System-wide analysis; comparative, ranking
Reporting: periodical, analytical, comparative
Publication of results of accreditation and ranking
Collaboration with HEIs for Internal Quality Assurance and Quality Audit/ Quality Assurance Unit
Supporting Accreditation Council and experts; secretariat, infrastructure, logistic, financial
APAAL

6. PAAHE and Ranking
CHE and PAAHE, developed the first ranking process in Albania. (October 2010 – June 2011)
Main purpose:
Giving information to prospective students: informed choice
Information to academics in higher education institutions:
Comparison and positioning, strengths and weaknesses
Information for deans / rectors.
Benchmarking, strengths and weaknesses
Information for policy makers
APAAL

7. CHE MODEL DATA SOURCES Field-based ranking Multi-dimensional ranking
labour
market,
employability
city,
university
students
study
outcome
teaching
resources
research
overall
assessment
(students,
professors)
internatio-
nalisation
University Data (33 University survey)
Faculty Data (55 Survey for each faculty of HEI
Program data (200 Survey for programmes involved in ranking)
Student data (7500 Student questionnaires for 2 & 3 year student of each program ). NOT VALID INFORMATION FOR THIS RANKING
Academic staff data (300 Full time academic staff of each HEI)
50 PAAHE External peer review experts survey
Field-based ranking
Multi-dimensional ranking
Rank Groups top middle bottom
APAAL

8. Selection of institutions
Criteria for participation:
1. Institutions have to be licensed (Council of Minister decision)
2. Study programmes of the first cycle have to be licensed
3. Programmes have to be in operation; should have 3 year students
4. Number of students per field > 15
5. Programmes have to be full time programmes
6. Different branches/campuses treated as separate units
4 Study Fields, 22 programs:
Law (3 programs)
Healthcare (3 programs)
Social sciences (6 programs)
Economy- business (10 programs)
Only 33 institutions fullfiled these criteria and participatein this proces
(7 public universities, 26 private HEIs)

9. Ranking 2011 Ranking was based on self declaration of data from HEIs
PAAHE’s staff collected data from HEIs (University data, faculty data, programs data, student data, staff data, APAAL’s experts data).
In this process, participate 33 HEIs (universities, Higher educations schools, branches etc) in 4 field:
1-Social sciences, 2-nursing, 3-economy and law. In this fields study more than 65 % of Albanian students
Are interviewed more than 7500 students, 100 rector and deans, about 3000 academic staff and more than 50 APAAL’s external experts.
PAAHE ‘s Statistics and Analyses Sector, was responsible for data collection and CHE for analyzing with our staff
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10. Results
Results of this process are made public on final report (July (
APAAL

11. Problems and recommendations
Big differences between HEIs:
100 students in small HEIs – students UT
Most of private HEIs are new ( 3- 5 year old)
Not all HEIs have institutional accreditation, not all programs are accredited
Missing data for research & projects, graduate students, employability for many HEIs
Low level of reliability of the data collected by questionnaires, (student survey, research, facilities etc)
Insufficient knowledge from HEIs about the ranking
Low credibility of HEIs to organizers (PAAHE / SAS)
PAAHE / SAS had no proper infrastructure for the development of future processes
APAAL

12. Recommendations CHE recommendations:
Establishing a special ranking unit within APAAL separate from the accreditation staff. This is important to avoid misunderstandings about the different roles and functions of ranking and accreditation.
Re-design of student survey
Design of a new student survey
Elements: US Survey of Student Engagement, Ranking of dimensions within faculties by students
New issues
Feedback on indicators
Feedback on data collection instruments
Establishing of an advisory board which should be composed by members representing different stakeholders
APAAL

13. SAS Recommendations…
After analysis of the first ranking process from July to October 2011, Statistics and Analyses Sector recommended to PAAHE- MoES:
Improvement of legal documentation in the context of ranking
Institutional accreditation for all HEIs, accredited programs
Information, consultation, discussions with all stakeholders and HEIs
Collaboration with experts and stakeholders for development of some questionnaires
Transparency and independence of the process at any stage
Appropriate infrastructure (software, server, website for ranking)
Sufficient financial support to SAS (financial support from the PAAHE’s budget, registration fee in the process of ranking, fee per program, fee per student)
APAAL

14. Improvements of ranking model
SAS is based on CHE ranking Model. After 2 years of experience and work, we have design a new ranking model fully adapted to the context of higher education in Albania. The model uses a large number of questions, grouped according to the indicators of each study field. For qualitative or quantitative data, weight factors are used for analysing and processing in statistical data software.
we designed new questionnaires for: institutional organization, academic staff (part time and full time), students, research –projects-publications, graduate students,
We are based on “Multi-dimensional ranking“ for different preferences, priorities and profiles
The methodology of publication and giving results for prospective students is included with a web application module on website dedicated only for ranking (
APAAL

15. Improvements on infrastructure
Regulations and procedures for ranking processes
We developed a software ( APAAL Management Software) dedicated for accreditation and ranking processes
This program will manage all data from HEIs, questionnaires etc
APAAL

16. Infrastructure
Web & mobile application version of “APAAL Management software”
Website dedicated for ranking process and publication of results
On Line portal for PAAHE staff, surveys, importing data etc
APAAL

17. Conclusions…
After 2 year, staff of SAS and PAAHE, has the experience to develop the new ranking process in Albania for other study fields and programs
This sector has the right infrastructure and support to continue in other ranking processes
Database of HEIs, research, academic staff, students, alumni etc, is verified and now completed. We have the possibility to check the data declared by HEIs through questionnaires
Institutions are now more sensitive to the importance that is ranking in informing of prospective students
PAAHE will require collaborations with other international organizations in the field of ranking, especially with CHE
APAAL

18. Acknowledgment … We thanks CHE (Center for Higher Education), Germany:
For trainings of our staff
For supporting us in all steps of the ranking process
For methodology and documents,
APAAL

19. Public Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, PAAHE
ADRESS: Rr.Durresit",   Tirana, Albania
Tel/Fax:
Web: 
Niko Hyka
Avni Meshi
Edmond Mino
Dafina Xhako
Thank you
APAAL