Education for decision makers in Western Balkans: REPORT on North Macedonia

It is our pleasure to share with you the Education for Europe consortium research (ES-BAL MAE-supported project) on education for decision-makers in the Western Balkans: REPORT on North Macedonia. You can find the report at the link below.

Except from the Study:

Short history of the education system of North Macedonia

The tradition of the education system in North Macedonia is a continuation of the model and traditions established in the former socialist federation of Yugoslavia and, before that, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The system in Yugoslavia was essentially emulating the continental model, the German and French with its “lycées” or “gymnasiums” of 4 years finishing with baccalaureates or Abitur (called “Matura” in all of the languages of the former Federation) and then, on the level of tertiary education, a minimum of 8 semester BA level studies [REF]. It is important to note here, that in spite of the country being a member of the Bologna process (European Higher Education Area, abbreviated EHEA) for 19 years now, and having adopted the 3+2 model, it still maintains the old tradition and the variant of 4+1 is still existing and highly popular, in particular at the public universities and their humanities departments.  The oldest higher education institution is the University of Skopje “St Cyril and Methodius” (abbreviated as UKIM), established a bit over a hundred years ago with the establishment of the Faculty of philosophy and the departments of Classics and Philosophy at its inception.  Sadly, a mass “exodus” of students, studying primarily in the former Yugoslav republics, now EU member states, Slovenia and Croatia more specifically, has resulted in a dramatically decreased number of enrolled students both at Skopje University, which has affected its international rank, as well as at the other universities.

The available statistics concerning number of students in the country are for the academic year 2021/2022 and the total of enrollments is 51.582.^[1] In spite of the fact that this number is higher by 1.4% compared to the previous years, the drop of students is constant. For the sake of comparison, which is by 12.000 less compared to 10 years ago. North Macedonia has been a full member of the Bologna process since 2003 (or the European Higher Education Area), has reformed its system accordingly, employs the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and is a full program member of the Erasmus+ Program. It is one of the 6 full members of the Erasmus program that are not EU member states, next to Serbia, Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland, Turkey.^[2] It is integrated fully in the ENIC/NARIC system which allows an overview of all accredited institutions and performs recognition and equivalence of ECTS, diplomas and diploma supplements.^[3]

Many of the private universities offer programs in English, and international collaborative programs or joint degrees, such as University American College Skopje which holds both national (EHEA) accreditation as well as American accreditation. Consider Euro-College which offers studies jointly with Metropolitan University from London UK, in addition to other examples which are, however, in decreased compared to 15 years ago when branches of NYC Educational Group, Sheffield and other international universities were active in the country. In spite of the pronounced international component, public universities are still more popular in N. Macedonia, and the vast majority of those enrolled in 2021-2022 are students at the public universities, namely 82.6 % of them.

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[1] Source, State Bureau of Statistics “Enrolled Students in the Higher Education Institutions in Republic of North Macedonia in the academic year of 2021/2022 (first study cycle) [“Запишани студенти на високите стручни школи и факултетите во Република Северна Македонија во академската 2021/2022 година (прв циклус на студии)”], available at https://www.stat.gov.mk/PrikaziSoopstenie.aspx?rbrtxt=29, accessed 23 October 2022.

[2] Source: Erasmus+ EU programme for education, training, youth and sport: Eligible Countries, available at https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-a/eligible-countries, accessed on 23 October 2022.

[3] ENIC-NARIC: North Macedonia: National Information Centres, Informativen Centar – Ministerstvo za Obrazovanie i Nauka Informative Center – Ministry of Education and Science, https://www.enic-naric.net/page-North-Macedonia, accessed on 23 October 2022.