The University of Prishtina – a symbol of resistance yet again

The most challenging period for the survival of the UP was the time between 1990 and 1999. The oppression of the eighties culminated with the expulsion of professors and students from the UP premises. The Serbian–Albanian confrontation over the constitutional status of Kosovo directly concerned jurisdiction over the educational system in the province. Control over Kosovo's schools and the university was, for Serbs and Albanians alike, paramount to the protection of their own national identity. In the context of national confrontation in Kosovo, this implied Serbs would try to gain control over Kosovo's

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educational system while attempting to bring about the educational unification of Serbia, and Albanians would try to retain educational autonomy (Kostovicova 2005, 93). In the period between the 1981-1982 and 1990-1991 academic years, the number of Albanian students decreased by 36% (UP 2005¹⁴⁹). The changing political conditions after the student demonstrations of 1981 had a significant effect on the UP. Finally, in 1990, Belgrade usurped authority over education and initiated a Serbian re-nationalization of Kosovo. This began when the Serbian Assembly passed a law that resulted in their first closure at the UP, which was the Medical Faculty. A year after closing the Medical Faculty, Serbia introduced a series of measures to eliminate the university's 13 faculties. All Albanian teaching staff were removed, while Serbian lecturers were promoted or installed in their place. This turned the university into an exclusively Serbian institution (Clark, 2000: 96, 97, 101).

The regime also initiated the segregation of Albanians from Serbs and Montenegrins in different school buildings and introduced new curricula, which increased the teaching of Serbian history and culture, while decreasing the hours for Albanian literature and history.

A physical division of pupils and students along national lines was imposed in Kosovo's schools and student dormitories during the spring of 1990 (Kostovicova, May 2016). This was arguably a precursor to total segregation along national lines, not only in schools and the university but in all spheres of life in Kosovo. After a decade of political pressures, in June 1991 Serbia imposed violent measures against the UP and its faculties. On June 27, 1991, the Assembly of the SRS approved the following decision: "For the protection of self-management rights and social property, provisional measures are implemented against the UP and the faculties in its structure" (Sluzbeni glasnik (Official Gazette) of the SRS, No.

38, Belgrade, 27/06/1991). This was the official end of the joint (Albanian and Serb) journey on building and developing an institution of higher learning or a university in Kosovo.¹⁵⁰

This decision led to further separation and segregation. At the beginning of the 1991-1992 academic year, the Albanian professors of the UP did not sign the agreement with the

149 In 2005, the University of Prishtina published a special edition aimed at providing information about the overall developments of this institution covering the period 1970–2005. The editorial board consisted of Acad. Jashar Rexhepagiq, Prof. Dr. Hajrullah Koliqi, Shyqri Nimani, MA, Associate Profesor Prof. Ass. Demë Hoti, Bajram Shatri and Destan Halimi. Hereafter this document is cited as “UP 2005.”

150 Even nowadays (2019) the UP remains separated along these two ethnic lines. Since 1999, the main UP (Universiteti i Prishtinës), located in Prishtina, has functioned in the Albanian language. The Serbian community established its own "Univerzitet u Prištini," an institution of higher education which is located in Mitrovica and functions in the Serbian language with its own administration.

183 Serbian Community of Higher Education and the Community of Faculties. On September 2, 1991, the Serbian police and army were deployed in front of the school headquarters to prevent instruction in the Albanian language. By the end of the day, the majority of Albanian language educational institutions were outlawed; this also included the UP.

Armored vehicles of the Serbian police and army were parked in front of the faculty doors (Kosovo Education Center-KEC 2000, 71). On November 26, 1991, a session of the UP Assembly was held, where it was decided to continue the teaching process in Albanian outside the legal premises (which were occupied by the Serbian administration and police).

Prof. Ejup Statovci was elected the new rector of the UP, and on December 5, 1991, the Deans Collegial Body held its first meeting, at which it was decided how to proceed further in the organization of pedagogical and research activity in extraordinary conditions on private premises (Kostovicova 2005, 126). The basic legal activity of the UP was based on the Law on Higher Education of the SAP of Kosovo (1989) and the Decree Law on the Amendments and Supplements to the Higher Education of Kosovo, adopted by the government of the Republic of Kosovo in exile on January 10, 1992. This influenced further consolidation of the legal basis, the activity, and the reforming of this institution. UP activities in extraordinary circumstances were legitimated, and the new specific regime of studies was followed under these conditions (UP 2005, 51). The rector of the UP, Prof.

Statovci, ran the university largely based on a statute adopted by Kosovo's government in exile. The UP was also financed from Kosovo's government in exile as well as from tuition fees paid by students. Statovci ran the university largely independently, with no undue pressure from Kosovo's parallel state (Hamiti: March 2019). However, professors and students attended classes without basic facilities, such as teaching devices or heating, in small and narrow private premises, though the most stressful thing remained the ongoing violence carried out by Serbian police forces. On August 21, 1991, the Helsinki group in Vienna issued a statement asserting that Albanian education in Kosovo no longer existed and that it had been destroyed by Serbia. Professors organized demonstrations in October 1992 to return to their facilities. Serbian police forces intervened violently and scattered demonstrators in front of the square where they had gathered to demonstrate. Yet no concrete measures for releasing the UP premises were taken. Consequently, the parallel educational system in Kosovo continued throughout the nineties. The UP played an important political role by representing the Albanian non-violent strategy as a legitimate

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form of national struggle against Serbian repression: "It was both a symbolic and a political expression of Kosovo Albanian nationhood" (Kostovicova, May 2016). However, as was the case among other dissident groups, during the mid-nineties students and professors lost confidence in the LDK's or Rugova's platform of "peaceful resistance." The Dayton Agreement (1995), which left the Kosovo issue unresolved, signaled the end of the fragile equilibrium between the Belgrade authorities and the "Republic of Kosovo’s" parallel institutions. Given that nothing had changed and the political elites were not about to take any concrete action, students started talking about returning to the streets. During this period education was more or less the only fully functioning parallel institution run by the Kosovo Albanian parallel state.

Controlling education, therefore, became an expression of political power and governance. Albin Kurti, one of the student leaders of the late nineties, says that the credit for preserving the autonomy of the UP from Serbia, as well as from daily politics in Kosovo, goes to Rector Ejup Statovci and to the leadership of the student union, "which were ready for those that they found ready" (Kurti, November 2015). Kurti also admits that without the UP's autonomy, students would not have been able to mobilize their peers and think about organizing the demonstrations. Ejup Statovci maintained the unity of the students, whereas the students strengthened the idea of active resistance for the liberation of the UP premises.