University professor Blerim Rexha has expressed concern over the decline in the budget of the University of Prishtina (UP).
Through a public statement, the lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering stated that UP currently receives only 0.9% of Kosovo’s national budget.
According to him, this budget share is showing a tendency to decrease even further, reports RKS News.
Based on data, Rexha emphasized that in recent years there have been growing demands for improved performance, scientific publications, conferences, and other university activities.
However, if these activities are not accompanied by an increase in the budget, the professor predicts weaker results in the coming years.
Here is his full statement:
The Decline of the University of Prishtina’s Budget
These days, the University of Prishtina has begun collecting budget requests from the faculties, and the faculties from their departments — where all the planning begins. This is a well-established and long-standing practice at UP.
For nearly two decades, the UP budget has been around €32 million (plus or minus a million). However, while 20 years ago Kosovo’s budget was about €800 million and UP consumed 3.17% of the total, in recent years — when Kosovo’s budget has reached between €3.5 and €4 billion — UP receives only 0.9%, with a continuing downward trend.
In recent years, there has been an increase in demands for better performance from UP: more scientific publications, more conferences, and more academic and professional activities — all justified expectations. But if these are not followed by an increase in the budget, the result is already predictable for everyone. In fact, with this trend, the outcome for the coming years is already known.
