After months of persistence by BIRN, the Ministry of Education confirmed that the diploma recognition platform has not been functional since March, rebutting earlier claims by acting minister of education Arberie Nagavci.
It was March 14, this year when officials at the National Agency for Information Society, ASHI, identified security flaws in the electronic platform for the recognition of higher education diplomas. Establishing that the platform breached personal data of users, ASHI immediately alerted the Ministry of Education with a proposal to temporarily shut the platform down.
After months of persistence by BIRN, only in October did the ministry of Education explain in an email that, “to secure personal details and to prevent every potential risk, it was proposed to temporarily shut down the platform.”
Almost eight months later, the electronic platform is still not operational and accessing its website only results in an “error” message.
The platform, which cost the Ministry around 200,000 euros, was designed four years ago to digitalize the nostrification process—a procedure through which the Ministry of Education formally recognizes a foreign university or school diploma as equivalent to a local one. Without nostrification, foreign diplomas are not valid in Kosovo.
Since the shutdown, applications for diploma nostrification have reverted to the pre-2021 system, commonly known as the “paper-by-hand” process.
None of the official institutions have provided BIRN with an answer on when it will be functional again. Despite repeated requests from BIRN since August 1, 2025, the Ministry of Education has consistently refused to provide explanations for the platform’s failure.
Diploma recognition platform out of function. Photo: Sreenshoot from NARIC (electronic platform for the recognition of higher education diplomas) website.
On August 3, 2025, Arbërie Nagavci, the minister of Education wrongly claimed seven times that, “the platform works,” in an interview for BIRN and Internews Kosova’s TV programme Kallxo Përnime.
“I know that the online application works. Besides showing the status of the application, people can also see where it is being processed. Sometimes delays happen because [the process is waiting on] an answer from the institution where students finished their studies,” Nagavci claimed.
BIRN, however, managed to confirm by constantly monitoring the official website of the platform that, despite the minister’s claims, it continued to show errors and was not functional. Therefore, BIRN pressed the Ministry for an official response, which was only received many months later, after an official complaint to the Agency for Information and Privacy.
Lack of transparency
Since August 2025, BIRN has contacted multiple public officials from relevant institutions for comment on the status of the platform and received no response.
On August 1, 2025, BIRN contacted Kumrije Gagica, who has been the director of the Center for the Recognition of Diplomas, NARIC, since 2021, when the platform was still functional, to ask about its current status, but received no response.
Minister Nagavci; Fadile Dyla, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education; and Xhevahire Pllana, the spokesperson for the Ministry, were also aware of these questions, but did not respond within the seven day legal deadline, nor did they request an extension of deadline to prepare a response, which would have been in accordance with the law.
Therefore, BIRN officially filed a complaint to the Information and Privacy Agency, IPA, on August 14, 2025, requesting that the Ministry be obligated to provide the requested public information as per the Kosovo legal framework.
Nearly three months later, on October 28, 2025, Elmedina Llumnica, a high official for monitoring media and access to public documents at the Ministry of Education, finally responded to BIRN, copying the IPA in her correspondence.
The Ministry’s response confirmed that the platform, which Minister Nagavci had repeatedly claimed was functional, has in fact been offline since March.
“The online application for the recognition/equivalence of diplomas is not operational. The platform was created in 2021 and functioned until March 2025. There were some technical issues, as application data appeared publicly; consequently, we informed the IT department of the Ministry of Education and ASHI, which have been addressing the matter,” Llumnica wrote in the official response.
BIRN also sent follow-up questions to the National Agency for Information Society and the Ministry of Internal Affairs on October 28, 2025, seeking clarification on why the platform remains non-functional, but did not receive any response by the time of publication.