The Impact of International Standards on Higher Education Institutions in Albania

While Albania has in place the key structures of the education system, the past educational legislation and reforms were not sufficient to fully develop the institutions of higher education. The attempts to establish premium-quality universities and research institutions were continued with the New Law on Higher Education. However, the standards in higher education, particularly in terms of scientific research, are still not on a sufficiently high level; the country itself is facing serious social and economic challenges, and research programs are both small in scope and regionally fragmented. Over the last decade, the vocabulary of marketing has been applied to the field of education; today, its scope includes several dimensions, all of them aimed at attracting new students. The contemplated research focuses on the characteristics of a new conceptual model that describes the application process for Albanian higher education in regards to the theoretical framework that includes educational philosophy, social justice theory, and educational governance. Namely, the main goals of the research are: to identify the role of new laws and regulations in the higher education system; to explore the effects of the application system from the students’ point of view; to provide a comparative history of the educational systems in other countries; and to compare and contrast the relevant literature