Where is the Macedonian Higher Education in 2025, and How Can It be Improved?

Abstract

This research focuses on the positioning of the Macedonian higher education in 2025 and its performance in a regional, Balkan context. The research draws from the overall problem of systemic decline in the Macedonian higher education subsector, as evidenced in the most obvious way by the absence of any state or private-not-for-profit Macedonian university in any of the high-profile international university rankings.

Therefore, the aim was to provide a regional perspective on the Macedonian higher education by constructing the Academic Ranking of Balkan Universities (ARBU) while using citation data from Google Scholar. The research employed a quantitative approach to determine how to evaluate the performance of the 28 Macedonian higher education institutions by benchmarking them with 151 public higher education institutions in the region, documenting how the universities in the region performed across academic fields and disciplines, and identifying the output of the top national researchers.

The ARBU findings showed that the Macedonian higher education is lagging in regional performance, with the largest Macedonian university - Ss. Cyril and Methodius - participating in a steadily pragmatic manner. This suggests that its role is more focused on maintaining stability rather than pursuing rapid progress or transformation. There was also no regional input with a mention of the Macedonian scholars in the top performance tier.

In summary, the research indicates that despite the current discontent, the Republic of North Macedonia is still acknowledged as having viable quality of higher education in the region but the system is beset with difficulty in research capacity, internationalization, and institutional governance. Without deliberate reform to these processes, Macedonian higher education will, literally, be uncompetitive in the region and further by 2025.