Matura in Albania
The official name is 'Matura Shtetërore' (State Matura) which was introduced in 2006 by the Ministry of Education and Science replacing the school based Provimet e Pjekurisë (Maturity Examination). The Matura is the obligatory exam one must pass after finishing the gjimnaz (secondary school) to have one's education formally recognized and to become eligible to enroll in universities. Vocational Schools are part of the Matura with a somehow different exam structure. The Matura is a centralized affair, conducted by the AVA (Central Evaluation Agency) which is in charge of selecting tasks, appointing national examiners, grading the sheets; the MoES (Ministry of Education and Science) does the general administration and logistics of the nationwide exams. A second Agency (APRIAL) modeled after the UK University & Colleges Admissions Service and the German Zentralstelle für die Vergabe von Studienplätzen is in charge for the admission to all Albanian (public so far) universities the applicants have applied for. The two compulsory subjects to complete secondary education are Albanian language and literature and mathematics. For being admitted in a university students must take two additional exams which they choose themselves out of a list of eight subjects. The Matura exams take place in three separate days usually in the June/July period. The two first days are for each of the compulsory subjects; the third day is for the two additional exams. The basic marks range from 1 to 10; for university admissions though a more complex system called MeP (Meritë-Preference) is used. The State Matura and the MeP replaced an admission system conducted individually by each faculty/university which was seen as abusive.
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