Kosovo, the youngest country in Europe, is often referred to as “newborn.” This paper maps the trajectory of higher education in Kosovo through the lens of internationalization. This article focuses on the ways that higher education internationalization is used as a tool for nation-building, development, and international recognition, highlighting both home-grown initiatives and the influence of foreign donors, as well as ongoing challenges that the “newborn” nation faces to date.

The first president of Kosovo, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, was educated at the University of Prishtina and the University of Paris before leading Kosovo’s effort for independence. Thanks to his example, higher education internationalization has been central to Kosovo’s nation-building efforts since 2008 and continues to influence the nation’s identity and quest for international recognition today. Alongside other countries in the Western Balkans, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina or North Macedonia, Kosovo is using internationalization and higher education reform strategies to develop the country and to engage in international projects focused on national development.

However, internationalization also faces significant challenges in Kosovo. Chief among these is that Kosovo is young (it declared independence from Serbia in 2008). Its independence is recognized by at least 100 other countries, but it is not a member of the United Nations or European Union, as some of these organizations’ members do not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Background of Kosovo Higher Education

The main university in present-day Kosovo is the University of Prishtina, which began as a branch of the University of Belgrade. In the years leading up to the war of 1998–1999, the Yugoslavian government closed Albanian-speaking schools in Kosovo. A dual education and economic system emerged, with higher education for ethnic Albanians moving into private homes.

After the war ended in 1999, all government efforts were managed by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). With an opportunity to reform its higher education as a new state, Kosovo, like other post-Yugoslav countries, sought external examples to guide the reform. Kosovo adopted the Bologna Process in 2001, although its formal application has been put on hold. Nevertheless, the 2011 Law on Higher Education in the Republic of Kosovo incorporated internationalization by promoting student and staff mobility and promoting the teaching of English.

Kosovo currently has seven public universities, one public college, and 10 private universities. According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, in 2022, 71,948 students were enrolled in higher education. In the 2022–2026 strategy on education, higher education serves as a significant component, with a focus on enhancing quality, integrity, and competitiveness. Moreover, the January 2024 EU visa liberalization policy has allowed scholars and students to travel to the European Union visa-free, removing arduous administrative burdens for Kosovars wishing to access international education.

Internationalization’s Contribution to Nation-Building

In Kosovo, similar to the rest of the Western Balkans, internationalization and higher education reform for nation-building include international partnerships, academic mobility schemes, and reform processes facilitated by the European Union.

Kosovo has partnered with foreign governments on several higher education capacity-building projects. For instance, the Austrian government’s funding of the Higher Education, Research and Applied Science (HERAS+) Program focuses on higher education reform, planning, and incentives, as well as data collection. A second project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to build university and private sector relationships to align higher education and industry needs. These opportunities help academics from Kosovo form international partnerships, develop their research capacity, visit other countries, and bring colleagues from the European Union to Kosovo. As a result, the number of EU-sponsored research projects in Kosovo has grown from 30 to 150 over the last few years, which has boosted many scholars’ recognition internationally.

Since 2001, Kosovo’s assembly has ratified and co-funded several academic mobility programs, anticipating that faculty and students will bring back new knowledge and skills for institutional capacity-building. For a small country, the scale is large. For example, 5,012 Kosovars participated in Erasmus+ exchanges in 2015–2022. Moreover, Kosovo’s government is also funding these exchanges, providing 50 percent co-funding for the Fulbright Program. The authorities have also co-funded 409 “Young Cell Scheme” scholarships for young Kosovars to study in the European Union, with the expectation that the recipients of these scholarships will work in the Kosovar civil service for three years upon return.

Moreover, higher education efforts are incorporating international recognition and peace-building efforts. For example, Kosovo’s popular summer school programs, offered at the University of Prishtina, the University of Prizren, Rochester Institute of Technology–Kosovo (RIT-K), and Kosovo Center of Diplomacy, bring international students to Kosovo for transferable credits to their home universities. A new partnership between scholars at the University of Prishtina philosophy department and the University of Belgrade political science department in Serbia is supporting individual research on civil society engagement.

Barriers and Challenges to Internationalization

Despite these successful efforts, several significant barriers remain.

Without universal recognition, Kosovo has been excluded from key international datasets, making it difficult to engage in international education policy work, such as comparing data with neighbors, appearing in international rankings, or benchmarking exercises. Unique among the Western Balkan countries, this omission from international data sets (for example, Kosovo is not listed in SCOPUS) limits the capacity of not only policy makers, but also education planners and researchers. It also affects university rankings. As scholars work to submit more publications in international journals, their universities are not consistently credited.

In another challenge, many degree programs in Kosovo are taught in the Albanian language, making it challenging to accommodate international students from outside the region (most international students in Kosovo are from Albania or Albanian-speaking regions of neighboring countries). However, Kosovo is also increasing its offerings in English. For example, growth in the number of English-taught degrees at the University of Prishtina has already surpassed Kosovo’s strategic goal for 2030, according to the ministry of education, science, technology, and innovation. Accredited programs and degrees in English are also taught at RIT-K and the International Business College Mitrovica (IBCM).

Due to longstanding tensions in the northern part of Kosovo, Serbian-language universities do not fully engage in Kosovo government programs and do not fully follow local laws, including participation in monitoring and reporting. This challenge impairs nation-wide planning and partnership development. It also reflects lingering postwar tensions that appear to influence international students’ opinion of Kosovo as a destination country. Similar post-conflict challenges are cited as limitations for Bosnian and North Macedonian universities.

Finally, according to the 2020 Report on the State of Higher Education in Kosovo, the COVID-19 pandemic and labor market changes over the last 20 years have presented more challenges to Kosovo’s higher education system. While many higher education institutions in the Western Balkans have had challenges with aligning their curricula with labor market needs, Kosovar universities face one of the largest gaps, with lower degree completion rates and a decrease in the number of accredited universities, according to European Standards and Guidelines (ESG). Universities in Kosovo continue to work toward reforming the curricula, recruiting and retaining students, and improving graduation rates.

Higher Education for Nation-Building

Higher education is an essential tool for the future of the “newborn” country, which has a very young population with a median age about 30. Like most other Western Balkan countries, Kosovo is working toward joining the European Union and has identified higher education as a crucial element to building key skills in technology, agriculture, administration, and the environment that are needed to support national capacity development.

Anne C. Campbell is associate professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California, United States. E-mail: [email protected].

Qamile Sinanaj Rexhaj works at the ministry of education, science, technology, and innovation,

Pristina, Kosovo. E-mail: [email protected].

Ola Pozor is graduate assistant at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. E-mail: [email protected].