The university is related to nationalism in two ways: First, it is an important step towards modernization, because it produces an educated group of individuals who compose a society's professional realm and middle class. As Tito attempted to modernize the former Yugoslavia, he purposefully increased the number of universities all throughout the region, including Kosova and Macedonia. The universities of these two regions led the way towards industrialization and away from agrarian-based societies. .
It is in these situations from which Peter Sugar argues that nationalism arose. He asserts that nationalism originated in Western Europe as a result of the societal changes that arose due to modernization. These changes forced individuals to place a new emphasis on the value of themselves and their communities to which they "voluntarily transferred some of [their] rights- . Individuals began making demands in the names of their respective nations, and these demands were labeled acts of "nationalism" . .
Second, the university provides a place where intellectuals can teach nationalist propaganda with the purpose of increasing nationalist sentiment to the general population of an ethnic group. The students in attendance are members of society who want to act out their nationalist concerns by attending a university that is conducted in their native tongue with curricula that relates to their nationality, which makes them willing subjects. .
In the cases of Kosova and Macedonia, the Albanian-language universities were operated by the intellectual and political elite, along with members of the general population, with the purpose of advancing the overall status of ethnic Albanians and providing an outlet for nationalist sentiment. This outlet was essentially the proliferation of ethnic Albanian culture and language. .
Ernest Gellner explains that nationalism was born when agrarian societies underwent a transformation towards industrialization, causing members of the new industrial societies to form their self-identity through professional status rather than family lineage.
