“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
(T. S. Eliot: “Four Quartets”)
It is not without reason that I started my greeting as rector of the University of Shkodra "Luigj Gurakuqi" with the above quote. Our university is among the institutions with the most enriched traditions in the Republic of Albania. It first initiated its academic and scientific activity as a Higher Pedagogical Institute in 1957, in the city of Shkodra, which is known throughout the country for its early roots and foundations in the field of education and culture.
In the decades of its history, the University of Shkodra has conveyed important events and dates. In recent years, along with other universities of the country, it has made significant and irreversible changes because of social, economic and cultural reforms undertaken throughout the country.
As the newly elected rector of this University, I have taken the responsibility from the academic staff, to trust in the future. I shall place priority and take particular care of the students and the staff. I express my willingness to put scientific research at the service of the community. We need to differently approach the present and the future in the benefit of the most important center of higher education in the north of the country. Today, more than ever, our society needs competent individuals and strenuous protagonists, devoted capable and professional specialists, reaching the common goods that belong to everyone.
In a different context of time, the choice could have other perspectives, other motivations, but one should progress with time and even more remarkably when one’s objective is a higher education institution, whose focus should be natural flow, continuity, and innovation. This is how I perceive and define my choice, after a truly enhancing experience of several terms in the position of rector of another university.
Our country is going through many challenges. To us, a big challenge is the continuation of a qualitative academic life closely connected to the labor market. Time demands the preservation and reformation of study programs, but also the designing of new ones. Updating the course programs is another goal, which is directly related to the qualification of the academic staff. Eventually the main goal is to maintain and to gradually increase the number of students.
"The individual is terribly lonely!” – this call contains the “anxiety” expressed in the works of the most prominent philosophers, artists and writers of Europe since the beginning of the 20th century. The struggles that humanity has gone through and is going through make this exclamatory sentence still relevant. But this should not be a normal state. In this human encounter, the university has a double dimension, simultaneously being involved and challenged. On the one hand, it should qualitatively prepare students for a global market, which is becoming bigger and more challenging, on the other hand, it should nourish and keep alive the human being in us, as well as our inalienable identity.
The University of Shkodra "Luigj Gurakuqi" has an extensive tradition, although continuously aiming at reaching a high quality and a wide variety of study programs. It has invested in new teaching methods and has made significant efforts to increasingly integrate theoretical work with practical work, bringing the student closer to the profession, exploring and enabling new journeys in overcoming possible obstacles.
Shkodra University is part of various national and international projects. Our students and academic staff acknowledge the fact that they must work diligently and build the future through challenges. It is necessary to reform the way of managing human resources in terms of connection and confrontation of the university with the world. The increased speed up of globalization is now more evident than ever. For this reason, our efforts should keep intensifying, to make the university an active hub of the regional development.
Our priority is to expand our endeavors to provide society with the positive progress of our work, and simultaneously to awaken a commitment as well as a responsible and professional commitment from all of us. Only through the paths of knowledge will we join the European path of progress. “Veç nji qëllim i naltë t’ban me durue, e zemrën ta forcon” (It is a lofty goal that feeds your patience and strengthens your heart). Let this verse from the poem "Qëndresa" by Luigj Gurakuqi, whose name honors us, be the right motive!
I express my deep confidence, as a rector being elected by you, that the experience I have gained over the years in the higher education system will bring satisfactory results. The rectorate building, like a head office, will have as the main objective the increasing of the number of students and the quality of the degree awarded.
Referring to the paraphrasing of the verses of the English Nobel laureate T.S. ELIOT, in "The Four Quartets":
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
(T. S. Eliot: “Four Quartets”)
Words of congratulations glow to spread so much goodness, like a ray of sunshine. Let us spread the word, not basically through hugs or handshakes, but through the light of the eye...
May we have a great year ahead!
Prof. Dr. Tonin Gjuraj
September 2024
