Since its founding after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, North Macedonia has struggled to develop into a prosperous nation. The country’s economic and developmental difficulties stem in part from mounting problems within the education system. A shrinking student body, lack of materials and poor economic opportunity have damaged the quality of all levels of education, but especially higher education in North Macedonia.
A Consistent Decline
Higher education in North Macedonia is a part of a broader national education system under stress. North Macedonia’s primary and secondary student body has been steadily shrinking since 2021, which is by extension drying up the pool of applicants for higher education year over year.
In the 2021/2022 school year, primary and secondary school enrollment fell by a combined 3.1%, while the number of enrolled students who actually completed the academic year fell by 18%, a metric indicative of dropout rates combined with increasing levels of young people and families emigrating from the country.
Systemic Struggles
In 2021, North Macedonia’s education system introduced the Concept for Primary Education, a program designed to foster logical reasoning and critical thinking skills rather than rote memorization. However, three years later textbooks supporting this new framework have not been issued. Of the 126 textbooks necessary for all learning subjects, mandatory and elective, the Ministry of Education and Culture failed to provide 43, according to the Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa.
There are shortages even in areas with improved infrastructure. Many schools have to operate in two shifts due to overcrowding, which increases teacher workloads, forcing them to juggle large class sizes and insufficient teaching materials, while students are stuck in cramped and poorly maintained environments.
Much of these struggles stem from spending cuts and broader systemic problems. In the preceding decade, North Macedonia has steadily decreased national spending on the education sector, falling to just 3.8% of GDP, according to World Bank figures. The funds are subject to corruption and the bureaucratic inefficiencies of fragmented governing bodies.
Nonstarters and Brain Drain
These issues ripple upwards into higher education in North Macedonia. As many as 25% of North Macedonians have not finished high school. Of the remaining 75%, only 17% have attained a college education, according to Balkan Insight.
These numbers are indicative not only of an underskilled residential populace, but also of a loss of talent. Higher education graduates leave school to discover low wages, a lack of career options and overall limited economic prospects at home. As a result, many students reject higher education in North Macedonia in favor of studying abroad in Europe and often do not return.
This loss of students perpetuates the cycle of underdevelopment. North Macedonia spends between 116 and €433 million annually on developing students who ultimately leave its borders. Low investment in higher education facilities and technologies means that these students have to seek opportunities elsewhere.
On the Path to Educational Reform
In recent years, North Macedonia has adopted several reforms aimed at strengthening quality assurance, transparency and institutional performance in higher education. As of 2023, it has implemented the EU-backed rulebooks on “Determining Professional and Scientific Titles” and “Methodology, Standards and Procedure for Accreditation” in an effort to standardize educational policy and boost consistency across institutions.
North Macedonia has also invited EU-backed foreign experts to evaluate its university institutions and study programs. The intention is to bring external oversight and broader stakeholder participation into accreditation and quality control and meet the standards of the EU’s Agency for Quality of Higher Education (AQHE).
Beyond higher education in North Macedonia, broader primary school-level reforms are underway through World Bank–supported initiatives. For example, 20 schools are piloting the Whole Day Schooling model (WDS) to enrich the learning environment by extending the school day and offering more comprehensive student services. This reform is part of efforts to modernize the foundation feeding into secondary and higher education and to create more prepared students for the future.
The Future
Taken together, these reforms reflect a coordinated push to upgrade structures in pursuit of a more responsive, higher-quality education system. By strengthening pedagogical standards and teaching methods, universities can improve learning outcomes and make themselves more attractive to students considering education abroad. These reforms place higher education in North Macedonia on the path to improvement and are working to draw the currently drifting student populace back to its borders.
– Nikola Stojkovic
Nikola is based in Villa Park, IL, USA and focuses on Global Health for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Flickr