ISSN 2411-9563 (Print) ISSN 2312-8429 (Online) European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research May-August 2015 Volume 2, Issue 3 157 Albanian Universities and e - Learning Luan Bekteshi, PhD Cand. Faculty of Economy University of Elbasan “A. Xhuvani” luanbekteshi@yahoo.com Abstract Today’s society is undergoing great transformations in every sector. One of the most important transformations of the social life is the making of technology and internet available to masses. The technology and internet have also visibly transformed the education sector. The society is facing continuous challenges related to the competition, globalisation and the demand from the job market for qualified employees. These challenges go by side by side with the transformation of the education sector, where a great deal is being invested on the use of ICT, mass education, and the introduction of new methods and tools of teaching. The use of ICT and e-Learning is an important challenge faced by Albanian universities in the mission to improve the quality of teaching, students’ results, and mass education, and achieve the necessary standards. Priorities like equal access to education and lifelong learning would be only slogans without the use of ICT and e-Learning. Polls and interviews were conducted for this study, to obtain a view of the use of e-Learning and the approach to e-Learning in Albanian universities, and also of the government and universities policies. Conclusions of this study are obtained by processing data from questionnaires filled by lecturers in some of the main Albanian universities. Keywords: Information and Communication Technology, e-learning, lifelong learning, education, university, information. Introduction There were only 14000 university students in Albania up until 1990, and capacities were limited. University admissions were limited and controlled, and not all youth who wanted to attend higher education were accepted. The political changes after the 1990 also brought important quantitative and qualitative transformation for the Albanian universities, such as the increase in capacities and admissions, and the opening of new universities. The biggest quantitative changes happened in 2005, when admission capacities went up to 52000 and 175000 in 2014. This period also saw some qualitative changes, the most important of them being the participation of Albania in the Bologna Process in 2003, which was accompanied by the restructuring and upgrading of cycles and content of the study programmes, adaptation of the higher education curricula to the Bologna system, and the concept of ECTS (European Credits Transfer System). The private sector brought a good managerial experience in the sector of higher education after the year 2000, which had its effect in the public higher education as well. There were 59 institutions of higher education in Albanian in 2014, of which 15 were public and 44 private. The total number higher education students were 175000, from whom 142000 attended public universities.