January 17 (SeeNews) - The oldest postgraduate institute of European studies, College of Europe, is set to open a campus in Tirana, its third after the campuses in Belgium’s Bruges and Poland’s Warsaw, Albania’s education minister, Ogerta Manastirliu, said on Wednesday.
The Albanian government will lead the construction project for College of Europe’s new campus in Tirana that is set to open for the 2024-2025 academic year, Manastirliu said in a statement, as seen in a social media video.
“This is a historic event, as for the first time a campus of a prestigious college will open in Albania. Not only because of what this college will bring to Albania in academic terms, but it is also in line with our vision for the internationalization of higher education in Albania,” Manastirliu said.
The Albanian government will offer yearly five scholarships for Albanian students, the education minister added.
Established in 1949, College of Europe counts among its founders Spanish diplomat Salvador de Madariaga, former British prime minister Winston Churchill, Belgian politician Paul-Henri Spaak, and then-Italian prime minister Alcide De Gasperi. Although private, in Belgium it holds the status of an "institution of public interest" as an organization governed by private law whose creation was formalized by a decree.
After the first campus opened in Belgium’s north-western city of Bruges, the second one was established in Warsaw in 1992, following the fall of communism in Poland.