35 years since the imposition of violent Serbian measures at the University of Prishtina

After nearly two decades of successful operation of the University of Prishtina, the 1989-1990 period marked the beginning of Serbia’s continuous efforts to destroy higher education in Kosovo.

With the rise of Slobodan Milošević to the leadership of Serbia, Albanian-language education in Kosovo, and especially the University of Prishtina, faced heavy blows that brought the situation to the point of serious danger, on a scale threatening the destruction of education in the Albanian language.

The Serbian authorities, driven by a nationalist approach, engaged in changing and suppressing Albanian schooling in Kosovo. At the same time, the situation at the university became increasingly grave, in parallel with the worsening situation across Kosovo.

The University Center was no longer a safe place for Albanian students and professors. Immediately after the end of the summer semester of the 1990/91 academic year, on June 28, 1991, the Assembly of Serbia imposed violent measures on the University of Prishtina.

In the new academic year, the violent administration, dominated by Serb-Montenegrin cadres, increased the number of students by 923 new enrollees, mainly Serbs brought from various regions of Serbia and Montenegro.

On August 21, 1991, the Helsinki Group in Vienna published a statement emphasizing that Albanian education in Kosovo no longer existed and had been destroyed by Serbia. Nevertheless, with the beginning of 1992, efforts were aimed at finding the possibilities and forms for Albanian schools to resume activity.

On February 14, 1992, the University of Prishtina announced that university-level instruction in house-schools would begin on February 17 of that year.