DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD | Giving citizens a voice
24 April 2008
American University in Kosovo Training New Generation of Leaders
English-language school offering internationally recognized degrees
Washington -- The American University in Kosovo (AUK), about to witness the commencement ceremony of its second graduating class, expects its latest alumni soon will be making their marks as entrepreneurs and leaders, and will help develop the economy of Europe’s newest country.
The 110 students are graduating from what AUK President Chris Hall describes as a unique institution in Kosovo. Thanks to a close partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York state, their degrees carry international recognition. AUK is the country’s only private nonprofit university and also the only institution that conducts its classes in English.
“That fact allows us to be the only institution here that is multiethnic,” Hall said. “We have Serbian and Bosniak kids. We just issued a letter of acceptance to our first Roma applicant to come next year. This is possible, obviously, because we teach in English.”
Hall said that when the university was founded in 2003, its principle mission was to help develop Kosovo’s economy by training its future entrepreneurs and managers. With an average age of 22, Kosovo’s population is the youngest in Europe, and many have left the country for job opportunities elsewhere. But Hall sees many opportunities for educated Kosovars.
Most in the class of 2008 are likely to have jobs lined up already, he said. “If we can feed 100 or so good business-oriented, professionally trained people with a good American degree into the economy here, in this small country of 2 million people, that will make a significant difference over time.”
Hall said more than 80 percent of AUK’s first graduating class of 57 students has stayed in Kosovo after leaving the school and going straight into good jobs.
“Our mission is to support the economic development in Kosovo and quite frankly, when we graduate a student and they see it as a ticket out of Kosovo, that means we’ve failed,” he said. But many young Kosovars feel they are in a position to help establish a brand new country “and that really means limitless opportunities for creative and entrepreneurial young people.”
PLANS TO EXPAND INTO PUBLIC-SERVICE TRAINING
Hall said the university recognizes that an important part of building a strong economy is having good government, media and civil society. In 2007, AUK added a major in media and communications studies and plans to add a school of public policy in the coming year.
“I’d love to see more of our students go into public service [and] I think that that will happen,” he said. Kosovo’s government has placed civil service reform as one of its priorities as it seeks to update and consolidate institutions that were inherited from its Communist past, and make them more competitive.
“As those reforms are implemented, I can see government being a much more attractive career for our students and that’s part of the reason we are interested in a school of public service, in terms of preparing people for that professional approach to governing,” Hall said.
AUK students are required to perform two 400-hour internships as a condition of graduation. Besides making potential career contacts, many gain experience working in domestic and international nongovernmental organizations and in the news media. Hall also said scholarships offered by Kosovo’s Finance Ministry pay tuition in return of a commitment to work for the ministry for two years after graduation.
FRIDAY FREE SPEECH FORUM
Among the highlights of campus life is the Friday Forum, a weekly public discussion of political events, social issues and other topics, ranging from book promotions to addresses by leading political figures in Kosovo. “We see it as a free speech forum,” Hall said. “We offer platforms to people of any political persuasion, or none.”
The discussions also are open to those not affiliated with the university, and can touch on issues sensitive for Kosovars, such as special rights given to minorities like Serbs. He said that the notion of having a forum in the English language actually enhances the discussions.
“It gives people a little bit more freedom somehow to speak out if they’re doing it in an international language,” he said.
With financial help from the Rochester Institute of Technology, U.S. officials in Pristina are helping the new school expand its reach. The U.S. Embassy’s public diplomacy section has given $50,000 to build the university library and plans to contribute a similar amount to begin a media center. It also sponsors faculty through the Fulbright Senior Scholar program.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided $200,000 in scholarships for minority students, $400,000 to establish AUK’s Center for Energy and Natural Resources, including a master’s degree program in energy policy and has committed $450,000 toward a planned female dormitory.
