University of Tirana, Albania – joint-coordinator

University of Tirana (Universiteti i Tiranës) is located in Tirana, Albania. It was the first university in Albania when it was founded in October 1957 as the State University of Tirana (Universiteti Shtetëror i Tiranës) by joining together five existing institutes of higher education. Between 1985 and 1992 it was called Enver Hoxha University of Tirana (Universiteti i Tiranës “Enver Hoxha”); after the First Secretary of the Communist Albanian Party of Labour, Enver Hoxha).

Initially it comprised ten faculties, but in 1991 it was broken up into the Polytechnic University of Tirana, which was formed of the engineering faculties, and the main University of Tirana which comprised the seven remaining faculties covering humanities, economics, natural science and medicine.The number of students attending this university is over 14,000 and the number of teaching staff is over 600. The Rector is Dhori Kule (from 2008).