Albania

GENERAL INFORMATION
Albania is a relatively small country located
next to the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of
Albania is Tirana. Albania has about 3.5
million inhabitants and a surface area of about
29 thousand km
2
. This means that Albania has a population density of 123 inhabitants per km
2
.
This is very little when compared to countries in western Europe, but quite high when
compared to the neighbouring countries. Albania applied to an EU membership in 2009.
The official language spoken in Albania is Albanian, although a lot of people are able to speak
other languages as well. A lot of people also speak Italian and most of the younger population
has studied English.
The currency used in Albania is the Albanian Lek (ALL). One euro is worth about 140 ALL. The
average wage in Albania is about 4000, although the purchasing power is about 8000
because the prices are a lot lower in Albania when compared to the rest of the world.

DAILY LIFE
Albania is a former communist country and this has had a lot of impact on the country. When
the country was communist the economy grew a lot, but daily life didnt change that much.
Today there are still a lot of farms where people still use old-fashioned farming techniques.
The capital of Albania, Tirana, is the best place to go when visiting as a tourist or for studying.
This is because in this city almost everything happens and the rest of the people live on the
farms. Compared to other large European cities there is not a lot of crime in Tirana. Tirana is a
very modern city with a lot of things going on every day. When visiting Tirana it is easy to eat
because of the large amount of small restaurants. Accomation is cheap and travelling is easy.
From Tirana you can get to the sea easily and you can also go into the country to be taken back
to communist times.

TRAVELLING TO ALBANIA
For travelling to Albania you dont need a VISA
when visiting from any country in the EU, unless
you are staying for more than 90 days or trying to
find work in Albania. It is the easiest to fly to the
Mother Teresa airport located 15 minutes away
from Tirana. Flying from Schiphol to Tirana and
back will cost 200-500. There are no direct
flights from Amsterdam to Tirana so you will
have to make at least 1 stop. The main airlines
flying to Tirana are Turkish Airlines, Austrian
Airways and Lufthansa.

STUDYING IN ALBANIA
Going to a university in Albania is not very common, but it is possible when trying your best to
find out more. Albanian universities do not give a lot of information online so you should try
to contact the university itself. For studying in Albania you need to have at least finished high
school on the VWO-level and you need to speak English on a high enough level, but this is
always the case when having finished VWO.
You can try to contact the Bedr university which is used to having international students. The
university has six departments: Law, Communication Sciences, Islamic Studies, Education
Science, English and Turkish. This link will bring you to the contact page of the Bedr
university site. http://www.beder.edu.al/en/contact/default/

Another university open to foreign students is the Epoka University. This university has
significantly more experience when dealing with foreign students. When applying to this
university you need to take the SAT-exam. This will cost about 80. Anyone who has finished
VWO will probably get a high enough score. The university has two faculties: the Faculty of
Economics and and Administrative Sciences and the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering.
The Epoka university can be contacted through this link:
http://www.epoka.edu.al/contacts.html

The Bedr university is located in the centre of Tirana and the Epoka is located 15 km outside
of Tirana.

When trying to study abroad there are a lot of scholarships one can receive. There are a lot of
different criteria to decide whether you are allowed to get that scholarships. Important criteria
are whether you have enough money or not, at what university you are studying and what your
intentions are for studying in that country. Because the ability to receive a scholarship differs
from person to person I can only give this link that will direct you to a Dutch site that helps
Dutch students find scholarship for studying abroad. The search criteria are already set on
Albania and student: http://bit.ly/StudyInAlbania

INTERNSHIP IN ALBANIA
When trying to work in Albania you need to have the correct VISA, but this isnt very hard.
There are a lot of different places where someone can do an internship in Albania, but mostly
in Tirana. Most places are used to having international students in an internship. Depending
on where you want to go and what you want to do you can contact research centres or
companies. One of the research centres is CESS and they are used to having students from the
EU having an 2 to 4 months internship there. CESS stands for Centre for Economic and Social
Studies. Students are usually involved in studies concerning issues in Albania, something that
is very educational for foreign students. This link will direct to the site of the CESS where you
can contact them and learn more about the organisation:
http://www.cessalbania.com/cess/interships.html

ACCOMODATION IN TIRANA
Accomodation is really cheap in Albania and also in the centre of Tirana. The rent for a 50 m
2

apartment is 250. It is the easiest to rent the apartment through a website that is in English,
but you could also try contacting people in Tirana who could maybe find a cheaper apartment.
Trying to make contacts would always be useful because getting to Tirana will be pretty
difficult without speaking any Albanian.

GETTING AROUND IN ALBANIA
The easiest way to get around in Tirana is by bus. There are a lot of bus stops around Tirana
and the rest of the way can usually be travelled by foot. The busses are pretty cheap in Albania,
just like everything else. There are also smaller busses called furgons driving around Albania.
These furgons dont leave at a specific time, but they leave when they are full. One can also
decide to move around the country by train. Trains have more space and they give an amazing
view of the country.