The University of Tirana

The University of Tirana (UT) is the main and the biggest public university in Albania, founded in 1957 and located in the Albanian capital city, Tirana. With the highest grade of evaluation from the Quality Assurance Agency of Higher Education, UT keeps the first place as the best-ranked university in the country. UT's mission is to contribute to the development of society through the three pillars, research, education, and service to the public, providing student-centred education. UT consists of eight main organizational units: six faculties and two research institutes (Faculty of Law, Faculty of Economy, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Faculty of History and Philology, Institute of European Studies, the Institute of Applied Nuclear Physics), a branch of the University of Tirana, in Saranda, 1 research center and 41 departments. The university's main urban campuses are located in Tirana, as well students are also located in a smaller affiliate campus in Saranda.

Associated with the Bologna Process, UT offers 161 programs: 37 BA; 1 Integrated Study Program; 73 Master of Science; 41 Professional Master's; 2 Executive Master Programs; and 7 Ph.D. Undergraduate degrees last three years, while postgraduate master's degrees are either one -year or two years, the integrated program 5 years, and doctorate degrees can last between three to five years.

The main language of instructions is Albanian. The University of Tirana offers as well 14 programs in English. These programs are in all three study cycles and distributed in each main unit of UT. The Faculty of Foreign Languages offers 19 Programs in several different languages including English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Slavic-Balkan languages (Turkish, Russian, Bulgarian).

UT is considered a large-sized university. Number of students for the academic year 2022-2023 is 22296 (BA: 13052; Integrated Program: 2387; Professional Master 2024; Master of Science: 4506;  Executive Master: 61)  Phd:266; Foreign students: 101. Regarding the current academic year: (BA: 9608; Master+Phd: 8647).

The number of staff: Full-time Academic Staff 791; Part-time Academic Staff 903; Academic support personnel 286.

UT has a wide network of local, regional, and international partner universities and the creation of new partnerships is a priority in our Strategy for Internationalization. UT has 4 joint/double degrees with the University of Tuscia in Italy, with the University of Salzburg in Austria, with the Sorbonne Paris Nord University in France, and with the University of Camerino, Italy. Regarding the opening of joint/double programs in the process, they are as follows: The opening of the double degree program with the University of Pavia, Italy, Master of Science in "International Relations and Economic Development"; and Executive Master in "Information Security and Strategic Information", in collaboration with La Sapienza University.

Currently, UT counts around 130 Erasmus + KA1  prestigious European partners HEIs and 120 active MoU with universities worldwide. UT has been part of the Erasmus Mundus Action II program within Basileus (two editions) and JoinEUSEE projects (five editions). As part of the mobilities, UT has hosted and sent around 835 students and 1471 academic/administrative staff. UT has also signed an inter-institutional agreement with the University of Lucerne in Switzerland within the SEMP program which is the Swiss Program for Erasmus+ for higher education.

UT has been awarded by the European Commission the logo HR Excellence in Research, which certifies the progress in aligning their human resources policies to the 40 principles of the Charter & Code, based on a customized action plan/HR strategy. UT is the first institution of higher education in Albania that has drawn up the Gender Equality Plan-GEP and gender budgeting to undertake systematic institutional changes in addressing gender issues for the creation of equal opportunities between the sexes.

Currently, UT is part of 13 important networks such as UNICA; EUA; AUF; BSUN; MAGNA CARTA OBSERVATORY; BUA; UniAdrion; Aurora CDS; NISPAcee; ASECU; Forum of the Rectors of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans; UNINOVIS Alliance; Partnership on S3 Thematic Platform for Sustainable Blue Economy.

UT is implementing 139 projects within different EU and National Programs (Erasmus + KA, Jean Monnet, Horizon Europe, Interreg, IPA Cross-Border, UNICEF, UNDP, AUF, APPEAR, Starkund Deutschland im Europaischen Forschungs und Bildungsraum, Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, local donators, etc).