The Organization for the Improvement of Quality in Education (ORCA) held a protest in front of the Rectorate of the University of Prishtina, opposing the way the case of academic promotion for Professor Fatlume Berisha from the Faculty of Education is being handled.

The director of ORCA, Dibran Hoxha, stated that the candidate does not meet the minimum criteria for appointment to the position of full professor, and that her case has been returned for review multiple times within the university. He said that the organization believes the process has gone beyond a normal academic evaluation and has turned into an attempt to relativize the criteria for promotion.

At the Senate meeting on December 17, 2025, the Rector’s Advisory Board had not recommended the candidate for promotion because she did not meet the minimum requirements for scientific publications. Nevertheless, the case was returned for reconsideration at the Faculty of Education, where a commission was formed to evaluate the credibility of the journal in which one of her publications appeared.

According to ORCA, one of the publications for which Berisha is the corresponding author was published in the European Journal of Educational Research, which appears on Jeffrey Beall’s list of potentially predatory journals and publishers.

“ORCA considers unacceptable the way the academic promotion of Fatlume Berisha from the Faculty of Education at the University of Prishtina is being pushed forward, even though the candidate does not meet the minimum criteria for appointment as a full professor. This case has turned into a demonstration of how personal interest can mobilize entire institutional mechanisms to bypass a professional evaluation and relativize academic criteria that should apply equally to everyone,” Hoxha said.

ORCA also criticized the composition of the commission reviewing the credibility of the journal, noting that one of its members was also the author of the publication in question, which, according to them, constitutes a conflict of interest.

The statement notes that during the Senate meeting on January 28, 2026, the Advisory Boards had recommended Berisha’s reelection in her current title, not a promotion. However, the candidate did not receive enough votes for reelection and the case remained unresolved.

“This case clearly shows how an individual candidacy can engage the faculty, the Senate, and the Rectorate in a prolonged effort to relativize promotion criteria. A candidate cannot override the criteria, a problematic publication cannot weigh more than university rules, and personal interest cannot mobilize institutional mechanisms to produce the desired outcome. If this logic is accepted, the promotion process stops being academic and becomes a lobbying contest. In such a situation, the Senate risks becoming a lobbying tool, the faculties become a shelter for justifications, and the Rectorate a rescue mechanism for candidates who do not meet the criteria,” Hoxha said.

ORCA has called on the Senate of the University of Prishtina to annul the decision for further review of the case and to reelect the candidate in her existing title, emphasizing that publications in journals listed as questionable cannot be used for academic promotion.