Indicators of the professor qualifications and employment in the ranking of universities

Despite the many critics of the University Ranking System, its conclusions draw attention over some interesting issues. First, if we consider the indicator of the pedagogical staff, considered one of the most important, we will notice that in the three evaluated amajors (economy, law, and nursery) 40% of the cases result with low level pedagogical staff. This means that the Institutions of Higher Education that participated in the ranking evaluation in most of the cases do not meet the criteria for prepared pedagogical staff or at least an acceptable standard.

^{Source: Ministry of Education and Science
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)}
 
Further analysis of the Institutions of Higher Education with the highest number of low qualification indicators allows us to notice that some of the public universities are not well positioned, thus defying the myth of the high quality in the public universities.

Universities like “Ismail Qemali” or “Aleksandër Moisiu”  rank at the bottom on all programs for which they were evaluated. Better ranked are “Luigj Gurakuqi”, Shkodë and “Eqrem Cabej”, Gjirokastër.

^{Source: Ministry of Education and Science
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)}
 
This reality should serve as a red flag for the Ministry of Education related to the future of these institutions, especially the ones ranking at the very bottom.

The second indicator that has great importance for selection among the Institutions of Higher Education is the Employment Indicator, because the need to become employed is the main reason why students pursue higher education. This indicator combines the perception of the graduated students about the degree to which the classes they have taken will help them to find a job, and the perception of the employers regarding how well prepared are the students of different universities, including here also the personal qualities of the applicants.

The analysis of the data for the Ranking System has shown that student questionnaire has been the only source for this indicator. The perception of employers has been totally left out, whereas even the students were never asked about the perception that the job market had of them, or the time it took them to find a job. Naturally this puts a big question mark on the quality and importance of this questionnaires.

Furthermore this explains why the employment indicator for the most part belongs to the middle group. If nothing else students are educating themselves with the idea that education increases their chances of getting a job, therefore the expectations are high.

^{Source: Ministry of Education and Science
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)}
 
In the major of Economy, only 3 Institutions of Higher Education are ranked at the bottom, and two of those are public universities (“Ismail Qemali, Vlore” and “Fan.S.Noli, Korce”). Law  and Nursery show only one Institution of Higher Education at the bottom, and “Ismail Qemali, Vlore” appears at the bottom in the Law major as well.

^{Source: Ministry of Education and Science
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)}
 
Finally, one thing that can be said despite the critics on the methodology used for this evaluation, and the colelction and analysis of the relevant data, is that the Institutions of Higher Education which participated in this process must take advantage of the findings to set clear objectives to improve teh ranking indicators. At the same time, the Ministry of Education must carefully analyze the efficiency of some of the programmes at the public universities in different cities of the country.