The Situation in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FIEK)

Professors of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FIEK) of the University of Pristina (UP) have publicly alarmed about the risk of closing the electro-energy study program at this faculty. Bearing in mind that this is a profile study not offered by any other higher education institution in Kosovo, what would be the consequences of the closure of this study program for the country’s economy and industry in the medium to long term? This publication focuses on the danger of the closure of the program of electro-energetics in FIEK, as well as the consequences of its closure. Student enrollment numbers at all levels of relevant FIEK courses in recent years are also examined to find out how tempting they are to study.

• To find out if there is a risk of any of the FIEK study programs to be shut down, we searched the following data across departments since 2012, when they were digitized with the Electronic Student Management System (SEMS), up until 2019:
• CVs of current regular academic staff and external associates;
• lists of full-time academic staff and lists of external associates engaged in lectures and tutorials;
• the list of retired professors in the last ten years;
• vacancies for full-time teaching positions;
• statements of the number of students enrolled throughout the academic years;
• results of UP scholarship competitions;

In addition, to investigate the consequences of the closure of certain FIEK programs that some of the largest energy/ industrial enterprises in the country (KEK, KOSTT, KEDS, TREPÇA and INFRAKOS) may face, and in order to understand the current state of these enterprises as regards their staff, we also explored:

• the main challenges these enterprises face in terms of new professional staff;
• professional profiles most sought after by these companies;
• study programs at FIEK which require graduates for employment in these enterprises;
• the number of engineers employed in these enterprises and their average age;
• the number of engineers retired in the last 10 years;
• the number of engineers who will retire in the next 10 years;
• the number of FIEK graduates employed by these enterprises in the last 10 years;
• the number of FIEK students who have completed internships in these enterprises in the last 10 years;
• the number of FIEK students that received scholarships from these enterprises;

In addition, for this report, we also conducted interviews with the Dean of FIEK, executives and former heads of departments at FIEK, professors and former professors of FIEK, as well as with engineers/ experts of electro-technical directions from the industry itself.