UCL Laws, FCDO & the British Council hosts roundtable with H.E. Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania

On 22-24 March, H.E. Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, became the first ever Albanian Prime Minister to visit the UK as a Guest of His Majesty's Government and the first Western Balkan leader to be received at this level in over a decade.

The Prime Minister of the UK, Mr Rishi Sunak, and the Prime Minister of Albania, Mr Edi Rama, in the “UK-Albania Joint Communique: Enhancing bilateral cooperation in areas of common interest” signed on 13 December 2022, agreed to enhance cooperation in three main areas of common interest: a) security issues and home affairs; b) economic growth and investment; c) innovation, youth, and education.

During their bilateral meeting at 10 Downing Street on 23 March 2023, both Prime Ministers acknowledged that developing and enhancing links between the UK and Albanian universities is vital to broaden and deepen the UK-Albania relationship and to strengthen bilateral partnership between the two countries, through the field of higher education.

UCL Faculty of Laws, the British Council, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on 24 March 2023 held the roundtable with Prime Minister Rama as part of Prime Minister Rama’s Guest of Government programme, as a first step to explore ways in which the pledges made by Prime Ministers Sunak and Rama can be implemented through developing higher education links between the two countries.

UCL Laws and the British Council, in collaboration with FCDO, brought together a number of leaders and senior representatives of UK universities, including Vivienne Stern, Chief Executive of Universities UK; UCL; University of Cambridge; University of Oxford; De Montfort University; Cranfield University; City, University of London; University of Sussex; London School of Economics; and Brunel University London. All expressed interest in building new ties and/or strengthening existing ties with Albania, and proposed different ways in which cooperation could be developed, including by promoting exchanges between Albanian and British students through the new Turing Scheme; scholarships for PhD and Master’s programmes through Chevening Scholarship programmes, especially by increasing ‘The Western Balkans Cyber Security Fellowships’; academic exchanges through visiting fellowships between Albanian and British academics; joint research programmes on policy areas that are priorities for both the UK and Albanian Governments; and establishing a ‘Centre for Research Excellence’ that can assist Albania with aligning its policies and legislation with the EU chapters of the acquis, and to the UK to address common challenges with Albania in the Western Balkans.

His Majesty's Government representatives in the higher education roundtable discussion held at UCL Laws were the Lord Peach, UK PM’s Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, and the British Ambassador to Albania, Mr Alastair King-Smith. Prime Minister Rama endorsed the initiatives proposed by the British universities, and expressed the ambition of raising more than £10 million with the parties in support of the initiatives to ensure that the shared commitment between the UK and Albania to strengthening ties between the two countries through higher education can be fulfilled.

H.E. Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania said in the roundtable:

"We thank the UCL Faculty of Laws, the British Council, and FCDO for organising the roundtable discussion on how to establish links between the UK and Albania, universities, and boost research collaboration. Deepening ties between the UK and Albania are of central importance to my government, and together with my counterpart, Prime Minister Sunak, we agree that higher education cooperation is the best way to strengthen UK-Albanian relations.

“The relationship and cooperation between Albania and the United Kingdom can be developed in a number of policy fields, and our ambition is to host branches or Institutes of British universities in Albania and support the academic sector to help and nurture ties between the two states. With the support of academics, the academic sector can help to improve the British-Albania relations, and the likes of Dr Andi Hoxhaj of the UCL Faculty of Laws can be a bridge between the two countries to take relations to a higher level and in a much more positive path.”

His Majesty’s Ambassador to Albania, Mr Alastair King-Smith said:

“I would like to thank the British Council and UCL Faculty of Laws for hosting today’s university roundtable with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

“Educational links are a vital part of the UK-Albania relationship, and the academic sector is vibrant in both countries, as today’s discussion demonstrated, and we rely on the goodwill of British-Albanian scholars, such as Dr Andi Hoxhaj, to help us move the UK-Albania relationship forward through higher education.

“I am excited by the potential new partnerships between British and Albanian universities moving forward, providing greater academic opportunities for young people in both Albania and the UK.”

Professor Eloise Scotford, the Dean of UCL Laws said:

“It was an honour and pleasure to host Prime Minister Rama and the delegations from the Albanian and UK governments at UCL Laws, along with colleagues from the UK HE sector, to discuss educational collaboration between the UK and Albania. Our academic community is more knowledgeable, more connected and more empathetic with international colleagues, friendships and partners.

“At the roundtable, we identified manifold ways in which UK universities and scholars can share knowledge and educational excellence across these two countries, from medical training and research around cyber security and governance, to investigative journalism education and research on EU law, justice and rule of law issues. I look forward to working with all involved on future collaboration possibilities.”

Maddalaine Ansell, Director of Education at the British Council said:

“The British Council believes that collaboration in the area of Education is a brilliant way to build understanding and trust between two countries and we were delighted that the communique signed between the UK and Albania in December 2022 included a section on youth, culture and education.

“The UK and Albania have some difficult shared challenges – not least in the migration space - but as the Albanian Prime Minister said yesterday on the Today Programme and at the Reception at the FCDO, no country should be defined by only one aspect.  The British Council believes that the best way to combat stereotypes and to build understanding is for people to meet people.

“British Council has a number of projects to support this in Albania, such as the Next Generation Albania report and our 21st Century Schools programme. We also have a small number of scholarships for Albanian women to study a masters in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematical subject in the UK.

“We are very proud of this work but to really build solid understanding and trust between the UK and Albania, we need a wealth of connections between UK and Albania at every level - between our governments, civil society institutions and individuals.”

Dr Andi Hoxhaj, Lecturer (Teaching) in Law at UCL Laws, said:

“I am very grateful to His Majesty's Government representatives, in particular to His Majesty’s Ambassador to Albania, Mr Alastair King-Smith, the Lord Peach, UK PM’s Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Madeline Knox, Head of the Western Balkans Department at the FCDO and its key officials, Sam, Jacky and Wendy from the FCDO Western Balkans Department, and to Majlinda Mazelliu and Maddalaine Ansell from the British Council for entrusting me to co-organise and host this roundtable discussion at UCL Laws in honour of the Albanian Prime Minister Rama’s official visit to London as the first ever Albanian Prime Minister, Guest of His Majesty’s Government.

“A special thanks also goes to Prime Ministers Rama and Sunak for making cooperation between the two countries in the area of higher education as a vital part of deepening the ties. I am very delighted and encouraged by the roundtable discussion and in particular the commitments of Prime Minister Rama, so that UK-Albania relations can move to a more positive path through education. I am especially pleased to inform you that the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies has just opened applications for the next 'Nash Fellowship in Albanian Studies 2023/25' and UCL is proud to have and to host the only postdoctoral fellowship dedicated to Albania studies in the UK.

“A special thank you to the Dean, Professor Eloise Scotford for the unwavering support and to the UCL Laws Events and Communications teams, Emma and Jess, as well as all of the universities that took part, and especially for their goodwill to support the further development of UK-Albania relations, which is very close to my heart. I am grateful to have been a part of these important and strategic discussions between His Majesty's Government and Prime Minister Rama.”

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama invited all participating universities to visit Albania as a follow-up meeting to convert some of the pledges and proposals made during the roundtable into concrete plans, and he asked the British Council to facilitate the next steps, and UCL Faculty of Laws and the other representative universities, to begin exploring potential collaboration in the areas of rule of law, anti-corruption, EU Acquis, cybersecurity, medicine, amongst others, with Albanian universities and research institutions, EU accession talks negotiation team, and the School of Magistrates as suggestive potential partners to implement the ambitious initiatives made during the roundtable.

His Majesty’s Ambassador to Albania, Mr Alastair King-Smith and the Lord Peach, UK PM’s Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, welcomed these ambitious initiatives and committed to working work with the British and Albanian academic communities to realise these goals.

The roundtable was enabled by Dr Hoxhaj’s research project on ‘Albanian migrants in the UK’ grant under UCL Public Policy’s Rapid Response Policy Advisory Scheme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.