Roma Versitas Albania

Pillar 1 · Education

Completed

RomaVersitas Program

Retention, academic performance and graduation support for Roma students in tertiary education.

  • 64

    university students in the first year, 2014–15

  • 38

    graduates in the first two years

  • 96

    students supported in 2016–2018

  • 95%

    of 2019–20 students achieved the credits they needed

The problem

Roma students who reach university in Albania face high attrition. Financial pressure, weak academic preparation and isolation combine to push students out before graduation.

Objectives

  • Increase retention and graduation rates among Roma tertiary students
  • Improve academic performance through mentoring and tutoring
  • Build advocacy capacity, self-esteem and identity

What the project did

The RomaVersitas Program is where Roma Versitas Albania began. Supported by the Roma Education Fund, it ran from 2014 to 2020 in three phases: ALB_039 (2014–2016), ALB_044 (2016–2018) and RVP19-AL (2019–2020).

  • Resource centres. Student resource centres with a library of academic books opened in Tirana and Korçë, and later in Elbasan, as a place to study and meet.
  • Tutoring. Students received tutoring in the subjects they found hardest, across fields from agronomy and business to dentistry, computer science and law.
  • Mentoring. Academic and employment mentoring followed students through their degree and towards their first job.
  • Student initiatives. Students designed and ran their own initiative projects in their communities.
  • Advisory Board. An Advisory Board selected beneficiaries and reviewed results after each semester.

Results

  • 64 students in 2014–15, 43 women and 21 men, and 67 in 2015–16, 47 women and 20 men.
  • 38 graduates in the first two years, 15 and then 23, and 80% of them had been mentored.
  • 96 students, 67 women and 29 men, were supported in 2016–2018.
  • 54 students in 2019–20, of whom 95% achieved the credits they needed. Tutored students passed 58 of 63 subjects.
  • All 12 secondary school pupils in their final year in 2019–20 went on to university.

Impact

Roma Versitas Albania itself was founded in 2016 at the request of the program’s alumni, to carry the work on. The program’s graduates increasingly moved on from Bachelor’s to Master’s degrees. Its model of a scholarship, a mentor and a tutor working together became the basis of the Secondary and Tertiary Education programmes that followed.

In pictures

  • Students seated on tiered steps inside an open white lattice pavilion
    The closing gathering of RVP19-AL, September 2020
  • Students in face masks seated on the pavilion steps, listening
    The audience at the closing gathering, September 2020
  • Students talking in small groups inside the lattice pavilion
    Between sessions, September 2020
  • Young women arriving and greeting each other in the pavilion
    Students arriving, September 2020
  • Two students on the red-carpeted steps of a stone building
    Students from the Korçë resource centre, April 2016
  • The whole pavilion filled with students seated on the steps
    The full gathering, September 2020

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