Author: Elsa Dautaj
The University of Tirana has since 2012 installed the computer system with the data of the students, academic and administrative staff of the institution. This system should offer students a variety of Services online, such as registration for exams, publication of grades, registration for passed exams or those for improvement, calculation of average and credits.
The system has made possible the electronic administration of students, the management of the work of the educational secretaries, human resources and finance for 6 faculties, the Faculty of Economics, Law, Natural Sciences, Foreign Languages, Social Sciences and the Faculty of History-Philology.
This great progress, which shifted the work from manual records to the data system online, operated until July 14, 2017, and since that date, secretarial work has returned to the manual method that was used before 2012.
For more than three years, the University of Tirana has only had the digital data system on paper, and none of the leaders has seen it reasonable to repair it. The malfunction of this system has brought direct consequences for the students, as well as for the secretaries of the University of Tirana.
A representative of a teaching secretariat, who did not want to be identified, says that "the flow of students is extraordinary; we have returned to a manual method of work. We have to look at the logs 100 times.” She says that "the autumn season is the most tiring, because you will process, who passed and who did not".
Despite the problems faced by the secretaries, the load and the entire volume of work due to the malfunction of the digital data system for more than three years, the University of Tirana does not see this as a problem that has hindered their work.
The Coordinator for the Right to Information for UT, Erolda Tarelli, states that "the malfunction of this system has not prevented and slowed down the provision of information to students in terms of grades, registration for exams, credits, etc." But the reality is quite different. For university leaders this may not be a primary problem, but for students, it is. Students feel tired of long waits at the secretariat.
We contacted many young people who, not only feel penalized, but show various problems that they are forced to face, at the cost even of grades.
A student, with the initials GH, indicates that the reception accompanies him for every request addressed to the secretary. "It takes a while after the grades are announced for the secretaries to write them in the registers and then, if you need a list of grades, you'll have to wait another two weeks. At the beginning of the academic year and at the end of the season, the secretariat is very little functional, due to the many commitments they have with the manual grading of hundreds of students", he says.
Another student, with whom we talked, with the initials ST, told us that in order to receive the answer to the grades after the exam season, she has to travel from Elbasan to Tirana and, when she does not arrive in time, she goes to the secretariat, where get answer still have to wait.
"The teacher informs us and we have to go to the faculty to get the grade. This penalizes us, especially for students who come from the districts, moreover, the lecturers announce only a few hours in advance. This season, for example (March 2020), I did not manage to get all the grades, because I was in Elbasan. I have to go to the secretary to withdraw the grade. I asked and they told me that the grades have not gone into the registers, so I have to wait."
The BD student shows that the malfunction of this system causes a lot of stress, as she has to run into the secretariat very often, when she sometimes even confronts them.
"When the system worked, we could easily check our grade and average, we didn't have to fight with the secretaries for a grade. Now we have to meet, either the lecturers in the best case, or the secretaries, who may refuse to answer and turn into a stress on their own".
Students indicate that after each exam season the results are communicated by lecturers and posted on lists in a visible part of the university, where even reading the result causes a confusion of its own for the GH student, who says that "finding your code among those hundreds codes is somewhat difficult. I read the code 100 times to make sure and I'm still unsure. There are times when I go back 2-3 times, because I'm afraid I read it wrong".
One of the reasons why students turn to the secretary is to ask for a list of grades to see if they are reflected correctly, but from this manual throwing of grades, mistakes can also be made. GH, shows us the experience that students can encounter. "It may happen that after each season the students ask for a list of grades, because they want to see how they were thrown, because there are those students who went to review the grade and saw that there may have been errors in the correction and in this situation they want to see how the grade has been posted in the system, have the corrections they had been reflected, etc. As it happened to me. I was given an 8 and I got a 9, because I was not given many points. They may want to see the grades just for fun, they want to see the average, they have it within their expectations or they are students, who aim for the average to get a scholarship, that's why the grade lists are required and in a way it's very tiring. for the secretariat. In other words, every season, in addition to the grades, the secretaries also have to issue the grade lists, because almost every student asks for them".
The GH student indicates that, although he has never been a user of the digital data system, in 2018 he was provided with a code, which guaranteed access to personal data as a student in the system. “When I enrolled at the faculty in September 2018, we were provided with a code that was supposed to be our personal code that would be used to access our student data, our grades and also register for re-granting passed exams or for upgrades, but after trying to log in, I noticed that the system was not working. Worried about the fact that there might have been a mistake in my registration, I ask some students of the faculty, who answer me that they are also unable to enter the student system. So, not only a personal problem, but of all the students of my faculty".
It seems as if the whole project of the digital system was carried out to give the students a code, which they never use, except in the secretary's office, where they should not go, if the system were to work, and for this they did not spend a little money. , but about one and a half million euros.
Where is the conflict with the IT system?
We addressed a right to information request to Ms. Erolda Tarelli, who informed us that, on February 17, 2011, the University of Tirana bought the IT system from BNT Electronics sh. pk, worth 160.769.512 (one hundred sixty million seven hundred sixty nine thousand five hundred and twelve) ALL (with VAT).
The administrator of UT, Skerdi Dafa, clarifies that in February 2017 the keys to the server room were taken from the Rector of UT.
"From the verification of the documents related to this problem (documents available from the offices of the structures under the Administrator, since due to the problems with the Archives Office, documents from the institution's archive are not made available to us, by order of the Rector), it results that from the minutes No. 1, dated 15.02.2017, held between the UT Chancellor at that time, Robert Skenderi, the Director of IT at that time, Suela Maxhelaku, as well as Dorina Panaritit, Director of Human Resources, "the keys to the server" have been to the Rector", says Mr. Dafa, a fact that was also affirmed by Mrs. Maghelak.
On 12.04.2019, the Rector of the University of Tirana was suspended from office by the Minister of Education, Besa Shahini, on the charge "Due to serious violations of the law during the exercise of his duties", based on the checks carried out at UT. The rector of the University violated his powers, wanting to keep not only the academic powers, but also the administrative powers, which by law did not belong to him.
Although the law had been violated, three weeks later the President of Albania, Ilir Meta, overturned the suspension of the Ministry of Education, returning the UT Rector to office. These political clashes between the government, the rector and the Presidency should not have interested the students, but, apparently, they were also the reasons for the failure of the University of Tirana to offer young people, among other things, more than normal facilities student life, even more so when we are in the digital wind.
According to a report we obtained from the University of Tirana, it turns out that UT requested the help of the National Agency of the Information Society (AKSHI) to audit the IT system and put it back into operation with the help of specialists. According to the report, the audit was undertaken by ANA specialists in 2019 and was unsuccessful, because the Directorate of Scientific Research and IT in the UT rectorate, directly subordinate to the UT Rector, was not available system credentials.
The administrator, Skerdi Dafa, clarifies that he has addressed the maintenance company, which has shown itself ready to enable passwordet and the credentials of the system and then addressed again to AKSHI on 16.04.2020 for the return of the audit group.
Other public universities in Albania, such as the Agricultural University of Tirana, the University of Elbasan, the University of Vlora, etc., have a system online, from where they can receive Services, which until 2017 were also offered by the University of Tirana.
The lack of an IT system has created a major bottleneck in the progress of work in the educational secretariat and has turned into an intractable stress for the students of the UT faculties.
While the University of Tirana is waiting to open the new academic year, until the moment when this article was written, students still do not have access online in their data system.
