Questions Raised About Albanian University Linked to SUNY

A private Albanian institution’s affiliation with the State University of New York has raised questions about whether such partnerships deliver quality education abroad, reports The New York Times. The University of New York at Tirana promises “the only real European and American education” in Albania and allows students to earn an American diploma from Empire State College, a division of SUNY, by paying an extra $100 per credit for the first three years plus an additional $5,000 for the final year. Critics say such arrangements are more about financial gains than education and question how much oversight Empire State asserts. Gavin Lowder, director of international programs at Empire State, told the Times the Albanian campus is held to “the same academic guidelines as the rest of the college. There are no separate standards for our Tirana program.”