The Minister of Education takes the medical students under her protection. They won in Italy, they transferred them to a private university in Albania.
Controversy has erupted in Italy over the case of 220 medical students who, after completing their semester, were assigned to study in Tirana at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, facing very high annual fees of 9,650 euros. The issue has prompted the reaction of the Minister of Universities, Anna Maria Bernini, who has requested immediate intervention to review the decision.
The students in question have successfully passed the first phase of selection and have been included in the national ranking of Medicine, published in recent weeks. The Faculty of Medicine of Tor Vergata University offers two study centers: one in Rome and another in Tirana. The latter has been made possible for the academic year 2025–2026 through a joint degree program (Joint Degree) with the private University "Zoja e Kështil të Mirë", with the aim of increasing the number of places for new students.
However, for students assigned to the Albanian headquarters, the decision came with an unpleasant surprise. The annual fee of 9,650 euros is significantly higher than that of the public university in Rome, as the partner institution in Tirana is private. Many students claim that they were not fully informed of these costs at the time of application.
For its part, the leaders of Tor Vergata University have stated that the information regarding the fees and additional procedures has been clear and published on the official website of the Faculty of Medicine. According to the university, candidates who have chosen the Tirana campus have been informed of the administrative obligations and the full fee that had to be paid for following the joint program.
The Minister's reaction and the first steps towards a solution
Minister Anna Maria Bernini has strongly criticized the high level of fees, calling them incompatible with the principles of public education and the right to study. She announced that she had contacted the university's rector and requested an immediate review of the decision, stressing that such a financial burden risks excluding many capable students.
As a first step towards compromise, Tor Vergata University has announced that it has agreed with the partner institution in Tirana that the annual fee will be paid in installments, divided into three parts.
Student appeal
Despite this, students continue to seek help. Gaia Gargiulo, a student from Naples and part of the group of 220 students assigned to Tirana, has publicly denounced the situation, noting that many of them believed that “Tor Vergata – Tirana headquarters” was simply a branch of the Italian public university and not a private campus with such high fees.
According to her, many students are now faced with a difficult choice: either to give up their studies or to bear a cost that exceeds their families' economic means. In this way, they feel deprived of the right to education, despite having earned the place on merit.
Political reactions
The event has also sparked political reactions. The vice president of Italia Viva, Davide Faraone, has described the situation as a “forced displacement” of students, ironically saying that after the immigrants, now university students are also being “exported”. According to him, the problem does not lie with Albania, but with the lack of structural solutions and the use of displacement as a tool to manage the problems of the university system.
