Prishtina, 15 February, 2023
“The history of the University of Pristina, divided the history of Kosovo into two eras which have the year 1970 as the border: the era of Kosovo without a university and the era of Kosovo with a university”. This is what the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said in marking the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the University of Pristina.
Speaking about the history of the University of Prishtina in front of the many present, Prime Minister Kurti said that as the place where the universal is studied, the university has in its immanence the public, therefore, also politics. Therefore, the establishment of a university is always a political act. “It was the demonstrations of 1968 with the slogan Du’m Universitet, which created the political conditions for the establishment of the University of Pristina”, said Prime Minister Kurti.
Further in his speech, the prime minister said that there is no academic, intellectual or politician, not only from Kosovo but also from North Macedonia and the Presheva Valley, from Sanjak and Montenegro, who has not passed through the banks of the University of Pristina. Even, as he said, neither the civil demonstrations nor the liberation war can even be thought of, let alone studied or analyzed without the University of Pristina.
Today, in the citizenship and independence of our Republic, there is no institution with a greater role and contribution than the University of Pristina. Therefore, he added that, “The University, with its professors and students, followed the idea of state formation for several decades in the first place, therefore you now, here, everywhere and in the future do not have to retreat to the second place in the endless field of state building”.
For the sixth decade of the University of Pristina, Prime Minister Kurti wished it to be a decade of further completion, with advanced teaching practices, with dedicated and exemplary students, with scientific research as well as international publications and publications, as well as with the contribution of continuous, daily in the public sphere, in society and in our country.
The complete speech of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, in the note of the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the University of Pristina:
The honorable rector of the University of Pristina, Professor Qerim Qerimi,
Honorable Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mrs. Arbërie Nagavci,
The honorable president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Academician Mehmet Kraja,
Honorable Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mrs. Edona Maloku Berdyna,
Dear members of the Assembly of the Republic and members of the Parliamentary Committee for Education,
Excellences ambassadors and representatives of friendly countries in the Republic of Kosovo,
The honorable rector of the University of Tirana, Professor Artan Hoxha,
Dear academicians present, professors, representatives of the State Quality Council, the Institute of History, the Institute of Albanology and the National Library,
Dear rectors and deans, vice deans and professors of our universities,
Dear students,
Dear attendees,
Ladies and gentleman,
The history of the University of Pristina, divided the history of Kosovo into two eras which have the year 1970 as the border: the era of Kosovo without a university and the era of Kosovo with a university. The first one has ended since then, while the second one, the more years that pass, every time we celebrate the birthday of the University of Pristina every February 15, it keeps growing and extending in time. The University of Pristina celebrated 53 years of its existence and work, which is why we have gathered here today, to wish this birthday to the managerial and academic staff, as well as to all students, current and former students. University of Pristina, where I am also a member.
The history of the University of Pristina begins with the Department of History, founded in 1961, almost a decade before the University of Pristina itself was founded. As the place where the universal is studied, the university has in its immanence the public, therefore, also politics. Therefore, the establishment of a university is always a political act. It was the demonstrations of 1968 with the slogan “I’m University”, which created the political conditions for the establishment of the University of Pristina.
In the Decree for the promulgation of the law for the establishment of the University of Pristina, issued by the Assembly of Kosovo on November 18, 1969, Article 3 stated “The University of Pristina will begin work no later than February 15, 1970.” The next day, Rilindja newspaper had the headline on the front page: “University in Pristina will provide light, science and culture”.
On February 13, 1970, the First Assembly of the University of Pristina was convened, where the governing bodies were elected: the rector, the vice-rectors and the 29 members of the Eldership. Dervish Rozhaja, a doctor of biology who had completed specializations in the United States of America, was elected rector. Two days later, the University of Prishtina would also be solemnly founded. On February 15, 1970, starting at 10:00, the then Provincial Assembly of Kosovo held the solemn meeting of the foundation of the University of Pristina.
Prishtina was the capital of Kosovo in the last century, but the University of Pristina was the capital of all Albanians living under the former Yugoslavia. There is no academic, intellectual or politician, not only from Kosovo but also from North Macedonia and the Presheva Valley, from Sandžak and Montenegro, who has not passed through the banks of the University of Pristina. We cannot even think about the civil demonstrations or the liberation war, let alone study or analyze them without the University of Pristina. Today, in the citizenship and independence of our Republic, there is no institution with a greater role and contribution than the University of Pristina. So, as we celebrate the birthdays of our university, we celebrate our own growth as a country.
The university is the place of production of knowledge and truth. But there is also room for the exercise of subjectivity. Where is there a better place than, among the large amount of human knowledge, to take the time and under the guidance of the professorial team to build the subject. Time and subject. The same for the state: between academic knowledge, civil courage and executive expertise, we must organize the state as a subject of a historical and geographical people, and also as an international subject.
The university has no small names. Science, Art, Philosophy, including military and sports knowledge, are the dimensions of human research in themselves, the constituent faculties of man. Therefore, the university is the most complete place of both deconstruction and construction of the subject. In this prism, the long-term idea of it as a high place and honor for the student should be returned. As we reduce unemployment in our country, dear minister, we should not allow university reduction, not only in our country, but also beyond, in the possibility of graduation for employment, but that somehow removes the depth of the person.
The idea of a student with a general relationship with the horizon of knowledge should be restored. Of course, more and more specialization, specification, modernization is required. But a metaphysical and epistemological background is always necessary. The unlimited role of the economy, the great shock with the climate and climate changes, the flourishing of the isolationist reaction in the western states or the flourishing of autocracies in the eastern states derives from the fact of the collapse of epistemology – as the consciousness of science – and the exclusion of metaphysics – as faith in theoretical thought.
Dear participants,
The literature that proves the developments in time seems to be occupying a marginal place in front of the entertainment of the mediums. The finesse of the humanities is disintegrating because the dimensions of written art no longer penetrate the social hearths, while philosophical-political articles no longer constitute radiations in society, as they no longer match the fast character of media supports.
Our people will be invited to the radical break of the subject between reflection and application. Those who will aim to deepen will be few and the risk of failure. Those who will be directed by the application will be many and the risk is suspected. If we give the possibility of reflection again, we will not have left the intellectual component of man alone.
We need a Republic that restores the status and authority of the professor as a symbolic function of intelligence and the student as a dynamic function of creativity, and the engineer and doctor as functions of the application of intelligence.
Dear professors and academics, I direct before you this premise of developments, I believe, in the right place. We need breadth and depth, not just specialization. Solitary specialization, without the gravity of a national knowledge and the horizon of a world knowledge, easily turns our professional into a trader of his skills anywhere in the world, having previously been stripped of the relationship of knowledge with time, the intimate relationship of knowledge with the homeland. Technology has the spirit we give it, that is, we give it. It has no breath of its own. Knowledge can become largely useless if it does not configure behavior into public policies.
The university, with its professors and students, followed for several decades the idea of state formation in the first place, therefore you now, here, everywhere and in the future do not have to retreat to the second place in the endless field of state building. We need doctors today who offer us a sense of the triumph of medical science as much as the healing of body and mind. The doctor, by healing the body of the individual, strengthens the faith of the community. The same for the jurist, lawyer or judge. In the knowledge and spirit of the university lies the first opportunity to have the simultaneous application of both professionalism and correctness, education and education, to be both good and useful, for society as well as for oneself.
Our ideological leadership needs to be the fullness of knowledge and not the shallowness of the result. Just as the state needs a whole background of functions, so too our individual needs a whole theoretical background. Just like earlier the foundational documents of the state of Kosovo that came from experts-professors, the background of the social and state intellectual resistance by the powers of this country should also be produced today. Let’s become together a strong fortress that protects us all when we are attacked and a strong bridge that holds us all when we advance.
Dear attendees,
Ladies and gentleman,
The University of Prishtina, originally founded on three faculties, grew over the years and decades, until today it has 14 faculties as separate academic units. The first decade of the University of Pristina was a decade of building academic and infrastructural capacities. The second decade, the one after the student demonstrations of 1981, was the decade of political differentiation, when even for two years the name of the university was changed, from the University of Pristina to the University of Kosovo in Pristina. The third decade, that of the 90s, was ten years of the university in homes and private premises, but also the decade when the Independent Union of Students of the University of Prishtina, with the rector Ejup Statovci at the forefront, raised all of Kosovo in demonstrations making the resistance active within Kosovo and sensitizing the international opinion abroad, on the violence, apartheid and segregation exercised by Serbia on the Albanians in Kosovo. The fourth decade of the University, which of the early 2000s, was the decade of recovery and revival after the war. The fifth decade of the University of Pristina was a decade of consolidation, digitization and modernization. The sixth decade of the University of Pristina, I wish it to be a decade of further completion, with advanced teaching practices, with dedicated and exemplary students, with scientific research as well as international publications and publications, as well as with continuous, daily contribution in the public sphere, in society and in our country. Wishing that this reality becomes a reality, once again I wish you the 53rd birthday of the University of Pristina.
Thank you.
Last modified: February 16, 2023