A new report with findings from the monitoring of three faculties at the public University of Prishtina reveals that a worrying number of lectures, exams, and office hours were not held by professors themselves.

The report by the Organization for Increasing Quality in Education, ORCA, which was published today, provides insights from monitoring conducted from April until June.

The Faculties of Economics, Philosophy, and Law were chosen as study samples because they have the largest numbers of students, and a large number of professors in these departments also hold public office, the report authors explain.

The report reveals that some of the academic staff in these faculties do not respect working hours by not making themselves available during office hours, missing classes, and not conducting exams themselves.

According to the report, 218 out of 1,177 of classes the researchers monitored during April and May – 18.5 per cent –  were not held because of professor absences.

“From 40 monitored professors, ten of them missed 100 per cent of scheduled classes, six missed 50 to 60 per cent of classes, while 16 missed 40 per cent of classes. This is a concerning figure,” said Dibran Hoxha, who monitored the Faculty of Economics.

“There were cases in which we waited for professors who we were monitoring up to an hour, or more than an hour, and there was no notification that the class was postponed,” explained Aurela Kadriu, the monitor of the Faculty of Philosophy.

“Out of the 60 monitored exams [in June], four were not held at all, 14 were conducted by assistants or professors that did not teach the class, while 15 began after more than a quarter of an hour delay,” the press release states.

However, researchers admit that their research limitations include their inability to follow up and see if these office hours, classes, and exams were rescheduled and held at a later date in agreement with students through informal channels, such as social media.