The Director General of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency, Naim Gashi, in his address before the Board of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in the United States, emphasized that the Republic of Kosovo has built a modern and independent quality assurance system in higher education, fully aligned with international standards.

He underlined that Kosovo, as one of the most pro-American countries in the world, views cooperation with the United States as a strategic partnership for the development of higher education, and that the recognition of KAA by CHEA would further strengthen academic ties between universities in Kosovo and those in the United States.

Full Speech: Opening Address of the Director General of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA), Naim Gashi, before the CHEA Board
Washington, USA, 09 March 2026

Honorable President of CHEA, esteemed Vice Presidents and Members of the Board,
Honorable Chair of the Review Committee and distinguished members,
Esteemed evaluation panel,
Ladies and gentlemen,

My name is Naim Gashi, and I serve as the Director General of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency, abbreviated as KAA, the sole institution in the Republic of Kosovo responsible for accreditation, reaccreditation, and the validation of international accreditations in our country. I have held this position for six years and am currently serving my second mandate.

Today, I am accompanied by Ms. Fjollë Ajeti, a senior official in the Agency and our coordinator for the CHEA application.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the CHEA Vice President for Recognition Services, Ms. Loretta Waldron, for her cooperation in the completion of our application, as well as to the team of evaluation experts, Dr. Malina Monaco and Dr. Lucas Kavlie, for their highly professional and supportive approach.

It is an honor and a privilege for me to present before you the achievements of the Republic of Kosovo, a country of 1.6 million inhabitants, in the field of quality assurance in higher education.

Before I begin speaking about our application to CHEA, please allow me to briefly say a few words about Kosovo’s ties with the United States. According to the Gallup World Poll, Kosovo is the most pro-American country in the world, owing to the contribution of the United States to our freedom in 1999 and to the independence of our state in 2008. Kosovo’s main streets and squares bear the names of former American presidents and distinguished public figures from both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States.

Kosovo is home to Camp Bondsteel, one of the largest American military bases in Europe, while our friendship with America in all spheres of life constitutes a core value of our nation.

Our cooperation with the United States is a priority of the Government of Kosovo, and with its support we have worked intensively to fulfill the standards required to become an authority recognized by CHEA.

The higher education system in Kosovo consists of 21 higher education institutions; of these, 7 are public universities, while the others are colleges. Our system serves approximately 75,000 students, and according to Eurostat, we are the country with the highest proportion of young people and an average age of 34. As a young population, with widespread proficiency in English and German, the demand for high-quality education is correspondingly greater.

The Republic of Kosovo has established a national consensus on quality in higher education. Our law on KAA was adopted by both the governing coalition parties and the opposition. Our Government has established a dedicated budget line for KAA within in the State Treasury, thereby guaranteeing full institutional and financial sustainability and independence. The Ministry of Education has provided modern office premises for the Agency and sufficient staff to meet its operational needs, all of which were also visited by the CHEA evaluators during their stay in Kosovo.

We are among the few countries in Europe to have adopted a specific law on accreditation, and despite changes in government, our Agency possesses the operational mechanisms necessary to function as an independent institution.

When I was appointed Director of KAA by our Government in early 2020, following the recommendation of a panel from the United Kingdom, I found only five staff members in the office. Today, we have a staff of 26, all with strong professional profiles, structured into two departments and six divisions.

The Kosovo Accreditation Agency is composed of three pillars:

I – The Agency’s Board, as the decision-making institution, consists of 9 voting members, including three international members and one student, as well as two additional representatives from industry without voting rights, making a total of 11 members.
II – The second pillar is the administration of KAA, which I lead;
III – The third pillar is the Appeals Commission, composed of 5 members, 3 of whom are eminent lawyers in Kosovo and 2 representatives from academia.

Distinguished Members of the Board,

Over the past six years, KAA has established its legal and regulatory framework in full harmony with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG).

Kosovo is the only country in Europe whose accreditation experts are all international, in order to avoid conflicts of interest, given that we are a small country. Our list of 254 international experts is published on our official website.

Since the Board is composed in part of international members and all accreditation experts are international, the working language of KAA is English, while all of our documents are publicly available on the Agency’s website in both English and Albanian.

As a result of the implementation of high standards in the education system, since July 2025 we have been registered in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). We are the only country in the Western Balkans registered in EQAR, because we are fully compliant with the ESG standards. Registration in EQAR has created substantial opportunities for our universities and students, while our diplomas are widely recognized across European Union countries and beyond.

Distinguished Members of the Board,

The Kosovo Accreditation Agency is a highly internationalized institution. In addition to EQAR, we are full members of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), full members of CENQA, full members of the Global Academic Integrity Network (GAIN), an Affiliate member of ENQA, and more.

Strengthening quality assurance mechanisms and the internationalization of the education system are two of the four key priorities of the KAA Strategy 2026–2030, which was approved by our Board in December 2025. These mechanisms have contributed to the rapid improvement in the international ranking of our universities. This demonstrates that our reforms and the raising of quality standards have produced measurable effects on the quality of study programs, not only within the borders of our country but also in the international arena.

KAA has invested significantly in the digitalization of services. The U.S. Embassy in Prishtina has supported KAA with professional expertise in the digitalization of services. We are among the most digitalized accreditation agencies in Europe, as more than 98% of accreditation services are delivered through our digitalized system. At present, we have also initiated the use of AI in certain aspects of the accreditation process, drawing on the most successful models in Europe and the United States.

In addition to Europe, we have also attached importance to cooperation with counterpart agencies in the United States. The staff of KAA are accredited to participate in evaluation processes in the United States, while American experts have for years been engaged as external experts in accreditation processes in Kosovo.

The entire staff of KAA, our Board, and the Appeals Commission have worked intensively to implement all the criteria required to become an authority recognized by CHEA.

According to the Law on KAA, all accreditations recognized by CHEA are recognized in Kosovo.

Being recognized as an authority by CHEA would represent a major achievement for the future of the education system in Kosovo; it would foster cooperation between our universities and American institutions and would open significant opportunities for the exchange of academic staff and students.

At present, two American universities operate in Kosovo: Rochester Institute of Technology and Arizona State University. We are interested in expanding this cooperation in the interest of transferring know-how from the United States to Kosovo.

In conclusion, distinguished Members of the Board,

I stand fully prepared and entirely open before you to present all the arguments regarding the significant work that KAA and Kosovo have undertaken to implement CHEA standards.

I am also fully open to answering your questions and to receiving your valuable recommendations.

Thank you for the opportunity to address this respected auditorium.