To achieve these objectives, UNYT:

A. … offers a comprehensive cycle of General Education courses. The General Education programme aims to encourage students to develop their academic skills, appreciate learning for its own sake, to encourage a mature and broad understanding of our world today and to prepare them as useful academic citizens of the Albanian and the global society. General Education is a key-requirement of an American university Bachelor's degree. Global socio-political, economic and cultural developments form many of the issues that higher education addresses. In a world where systems are constantly under reform, commerce, communication and both individual and societal problems have acquired a global character: issues like the environmental destruction and economic development, contemporary health problems and pandemics, conflicts and security dilemmas, poverty and despair appear to be more urgent than ever. Likewise, the modern world attempts to promote values, such as freedom, democracy, equity, justice, and peace, which are increasingly understood to encompass the globe and play out across multiple and complex cultures. These globally challenges ‘cut across academic disciplines and require perspectives beyond the training and experience' of a highly cross-disciplinary faculty team.

In line with the beliefs of the Association of American Colleges and Universities that “liberal education has the strongest impact when students look beyond the classroom to the world's major questions, asking students to apply the developing analytical skills and ethical judgments to significant problems in the world around them”1, UNYT sets global awareness as an overarching goal of its curriculum and particularly engages its students into a two-part General Education program consisting of core requirements and distribution requirements [see Appendix V, pp. 51-67].

Core requirements help students develop advanced communication, critical thinking, analytical, synthetic and quantitative skills:

Distribution requirements introduce students to the breadth of human inquiry in the liberal arts and sciences. In concrete, students are required to take one course from the following disciplines:

The University of New York in Tirana, administrators, instructors and staff, are dedicated to the spirit of learning, personal growth and the development of a community in which active participation and freedom of expression are encouraged and supported.

B. … employs a variety of innovative methods in teaching and learning. UNYT strives to promote innovative methods of teaching. Along with the traditional lecture, highly interactive methods enhance student understanding of the materials at hand. Instructors are encouraged to supplement lectures with debates, in-class discussion, group and individual work, and off-campus activities. For students with special needs individualized teaching methods are implemented. The university commits itself to high standards of theoretical, empirical and hands-on teaching, activating a great range of teaching aids, including, but limited to, overhead projectors, slide projectors, computer projectors, maps, charts, laboratory applications in our computer labs and off-campus teaching. Instructors apply different methods for checking the degree in which each individual student assimilates the course materials. Yet, typically, a course requires a minimum of two in-class tests, that is, one mid-term and one final test, as well as in-class participation and weekly preparation and, possibly a research paper.

Teaching standards are carefully monitored each semester in three different ways. First, each student is assigned to an advisor, who, in complete confidentiality, is expected to records the student's progress throughout the semester and mediate to colleagues, if this is necessary. Contacting an advisor is the first informal step for a student who wants to file a grievance. Secondly, during the sixth week of courses, the students are given course evaluation questionnaires conducted with complete confidentiality. Thirdly, once every two years all instructors are peer-evaluated by their department heads by way of class observations.

C. … addresses to the individual needs of students as active and creative learners. UNYT intentionally keeps small class sizes to encourage as much individual time for each student's dealing with a faculty as is necessary for a student's development. In Fall '07 the average UNYT class size was 15.6 students, while the average class size of an ESC course was 12.2. Furthermore, a system of tutorials enhances students' potential by allocating individual time for one-to-one instruction with UNYT's faculty.

Each student is allocated a faculty advisor who is in charge of monitoring and facilitating smooth progression of a student towards graduation.

D. … as an American university operating in Europe closely observes developments in the European Higher Education System. In his article on the implementation of the Bologna Declaration in Italian Universities, Giliberto Capano2 identifies “six important objectives underlying the Europeanisation of higher education: 1) The adoption of a system of readable and comparable degrees. 2) The establishment of a system of credits. 3) The promotion of mobility. 4) The promotion of European co-operation in the field of quality assurance. 5) The promotion of a European perspective in higher education. 6) The adoption of a system essentially based on two main cycles, undergraduate and post-graduate.

Although UNYT consciously does not formally adhere to the resolutions of the Bologna Magna Carta Universitatum of 1988 and those of those of the Joint Declaration of the European Ministers of Education (19.06.1999)3, it is fair to say that the system applied in UNYT bears considerable similarities with the desiderata of the Bologna Reform and, therefore, addresses all of its objectives. All of the objectives of the new degree system, charted following the Bologna Declaration4, we believe, are achieved. A reduction in the present length of university studies can be achieved either when UNYT students enrol with more than five courses per semester (approval by the Rector or the Deputy Rector is required), or when students enroll in a course offered during the accelerated summer semester (last week of June and July).

Bologna Objective 1: The adoption of a system of readable and comparable degrees – link of education with the employment market.

Studies at UNYT are fully legible and transparent, in that the programs of study are published in UNYT's bulletin [http://www.unyt.edu.al/………]. Furthermore, there is a close link between the curricula and the knowledge and skills required by the labor market, as all of the courses are to various degrees very ‘hands-on'; furthermore, the university attempts to bridge the ‘experience gap' between the students' studies and their employment by realizing a comprehensive system of internships and senior projects, and planning co-operative projects, establishing UNYT's career center for career days and holding business networking banquets.. It is anticipated that through such synergies, UNYT will breach the serious gap or disconnect for students receiving their first postsecondary degree and successfully finding entry level employment. In addition, UNYT maintains close contacts with the business community through its executive MBA programmes, executive and vocational training programs, and its internship programme. Last but not least, a carefully designed series of guest-lectures aim at enhancing student knowledge in selected fields, while trying to increase intention rates along with other extra-curricular activities (i.e. student involvement in research projects, educational excursions). Last but not least, UNYT was the first university in Albania and among the first universities in Europe to offer a Diploma Supplement to its students [for an example, see http://www.unyt.edu.al/…………].

Bologna Objective 2: The establishment of a system of credits.

UNYT's system of credits is essentially the same with the credit system dictated by the Bologna Declaration. While the European Credit Transfer System primarily stipulates that 1) one credit stands for 25 hours of work; 2) one year's workload is equivalent to sixty credits (1500 hours of work); 3) for each educational activity, at least 50% of the credits awarded must reflect independent studies; 4) and that 60% of credits must be awarded for time spent studying the concentration subject areas5, UNYT's system of credits achieves the same goals in a different way. While one UNYT credit stands for a total semester workload of 45 hours work (15 class hours and 30 hours of independent work for preparation, namely more than 50% of the total course-load pursued on an independent basis [ECTS, points 1 and 3]), the average total annual workload is 1350 hours (30 credits per academic year [ECTS, point 2]), namely almost as much as the Bologna desideratum . If, however, a student takes advantage of all opportunities on offer at UNYT, both curricular and extra-curricular activities (i.e. guest-lectures, educational excursions, etc.) his/her workload is very close to the Bologna stipulation of annual workload. Finally, concentration courses take up 64% of the total degree work, very close to the 60 % rate desired by the European Credit Transfer System [ECTS, point 4].

Bologna Objective 3: The promotion of mobility.

The educational system at UNYT guarantees high mobility possibilities for the students. While UNYT accepts transfer students from both European and American universities applying a credit recognition system, experience has shown that UNYT students can easily transfer their credits either to a college within the NYC group, or in the American or British university of their choice [as, for example, the case of our former students Ada Musabelliu and Alban Avxhiu, who have transferred their credits to SUNY/New Paltz and graduated in December 2006 and August 2006, respectively; both are currently working in IBM's offices, New York].

Bologna Objective 4: The promotion of European co-operation in the field of quality assurance.

UNYT retains close contacts with European universities (i.e. The University of Sudderland and The Ionian University, Corfu), sometimes leading towards the establishment of partnerships (Institut Universitaire Kürt Bosch), and American universities other than SUNY/ESC (i.e. the King's College, New York ). In specific, SUNY/ESC takes active part in evaluation and quality assurance of our services. At the beginning of each semester / term, a delegation from SUNY/ESC headed by its coordinator, Dr. Richard Bonnabeau, visits Tirana, in order to evaluate the courses offered during the previous semester, evaluate their instructors, check the progress of the students and plan for future courses. While this team of colleagues from SUNY/ESC is physically not present during the semester, they retain direct or indirect (through ESC's administrational assistant in Tirana, Ms. Najada Fani) contacts with the students and the academic staff members.

However, UNYT is autonomous to decide the content of its educational programs. While a core of courses remains stable, there are considerable flexibilities for combinations of courses and innovation. Upon formal academic advising, students are given several choices of elective courses that fulfill a profile in their transcripts that, in their opinion and the advice of their advisors, will be useful in their professional and academic careers. Furthermore, every summer elective upper division concentration courses are created in accordance to the particular strengths of our staff members, student and market needs. By way of evidence, last summer a course entitled “Information Systems for Banking” entailing an internship in ALPHA Bank was created for Finance students needing it, which was taught by the bank's head of IT support, Mr. Alban Burazeri. This summer another course is thought to be created: Negotiations and Mediation: Strategies, Tactics and Techniques, if realized, will target the needs of our Business, I.R., and Psychology students. Last but not least, university autonomy is an essential part of UNYT's agreement with SUNY/ESC.

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1. Association of American Colleges and Universities, “General Education for Global Learning”, http://www.aacu.org/SharedFutures/gened_global_learning/rationale.cfm, accessed in 27.02.2006. [return]
2. Capano G. (2002), “Implementing the Bologna Declaration in Italian Universities”, Training & Teaching , v. 1, No. 3, viewed in < http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECpR/publications/eps/onlineissues/summer2002 /training_ teaching/capano.htm > and accessed in 01 March, 2006. [return]
3. For this declaration, see http://www.cepes.ro/information_services/sources/on_line/bologna.htm, accessed in 04 March, 2006. [return]
4. Guerzoni, L. (1999), ‘La riforma dell'istruzione superiore in Italia (1996-1999)', http://www.miur.it/ universita/universita.html, cited in Capano G. (2002), “Implementing the Bologna Declaration in Italian Universities”, Training & Teaching , v. 1, No. 3, viewed in < http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECpR/publications/eps /onlineissues/summer2002/training_teaching/capano.htm > and accessed in 01 March, 2006. [return]
5. For those principles, see Capano G. (2002), “Implementing the Bologna Declaration in Italian Universities”, Training & Teaching , v. 1, No. 3, viewed in < http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECpR/publications/eps /onlineissues/summer2002/training_teaching/capano.htm > and accessed in 01 March, 2006. [return]