According to the new Law on Higher Education (May 2018), the system of enabling, evaluating, developing and promoting the high education is provided through National Council for Higher Education and Scientific Research and National Quality Assurance Agency. National Council for Higher Education and Scientific Research activity as an independent expert body composed of 15 members with four years mandate to act as a main advising body to the Minister for Education and the Government
Although the Law on Higher Education is adopted a year ago (May 2018) the Agency for quality assurance in higher education hasn’t been established yet. At the end of 2018. The Government took the initiative on establishing the Agency’s ‘bodies, but no concrete actions have been undertaken so far. Nevertheless, the Law envisaged that the National Quality Assurance Agency in Higher Education should be an independent institution, managed by Director and composed of two units:
Every six months, the Evaluation Board should submit a report for its work to the line Ministry and the National Council for Higher Education and Research. The report should be mandatorily published on the website of the Quality Assurance Agency and the web site of the ministry responsible for higher education.
The Board accredits the academic programs for accreditation of Higher Education as a body within Quality Assurance Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia. The Board of accreditation controls all requirements prescribed by the Law of HE-related to the content of academic programs.
The Senate of the University firstly adopts study programs of the first, second and third cycle and study programs upon the proposal of the academic teaching council of the faculty and submit the proposed academic programs with all supporting documents to the Accreditation Board.
Upon receipt of a decision on accreditation by the Board for accreditation, the Director of the Quality Assurance Agency creates the three members commission to determine the fulfillment of the conditions for the academic programs.
The Director of the Quality Agency gives the decision to start with the study programs of the first and second cycle after received accreditation by the Accreditation Board and after the received positive report by the commission on the fulfillment of the conditions for the academic programs start.
The Accreditation Board decision for accreditation of study programs of the first, second and the third cycle is valid for five academic years. Public higher education institutions can also accredit study programs that are not funded by the Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia.
While there are no criteria envisaged for Mentors of master thesis eligibility, the Accreditation Board, accredits mentors of doctoral studies. Fulfilling certain criteria in terms of the scientific research publications and books , the mentor of the doctoral thesis should be a full - time or associate professor from the relevant scientific field who is employed by a higher education institution, a full - time or associate professor whose working relation is on standby or regular basis or retired professor who used to be employed by a higher education institution.
According to the Law on Higher Education the evaluation of higher education institutions in the Republic of North Macedonia is done through:
The Board of Evaluation should make an external evaluation of the Higher Institution in North Macedonia within the Quality Assurance Agency. However, this body hasn’t been established yet. So, until now the evaluation process of Higher Education Institutions in North Macedonia was made through the process of Ranking of the Higher Education Institutions by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (World Academic Ranking), using 21 indicators of academic performance and competitiveness, covering core missions of HEIs such as teaching, research, and social services. The criteria for evaluation is given in the following Evaluation Criteria.
The Law envisaged that the external evaluation to be performed by the expert commissions, appointed by the Evaluation board. At least two-thirds of the members of the expert commission are professors from the Member States universities of the European Association for the European Higher Education (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education - ENQA). The standards and procedure for external evaluation should be presented in the Rulebook in the compliance with the accepted standards and procedures applied by the ENQA. External evaluation of the higher education institution should be performed according to the annual work plan of the Evaluation Board or upon request submitted by - National Council for Higher Education, - higher education institution or the Minister of Education and Science.
Self-evaluation is conducted by each Higher Education Institution at intervals of the most three years, while some HEI conduct self-evaluation every year. Self-evaluation of Higher Education Institution is carried out by the self-evaluation commission of each university. Self-evaluation commission of the university is a separate university unit and composed by appointed university professors, assistants and representatives of students (with one-year mandate).
An integral part of the self-evaluation is a student survey which is referring to the quality of the academic and collaborative staff and is implemented in the second half of the semester, for each course /professor/assistant separately, depending on whether it is scheduled as a one-semester course or two-semester course.
As National Quality assurance Agency hasn’t been established yet, no reports are used so far.
Although all previous Laws on Higher Education in the Republic of North Macedonia envisaged the evaluation to be made by the Board of Evaluation or Quality Assurance Agency, in practice that type of bodies has never been established.
Until now the evaluation process of Higher Education Institutions in North Macedonia was made through the process of Ranking of the Higher Education Institutions by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (World Academic Ranking). HEIs in MK passed three times through the process of academic ranking, analyzing the data for the academic year 2011-2012; the academic year 2013-2014 and academic year 2015-2016. These ranking continuously contributed to the transparency, quality, and efficiency of Macedonian HEIs.
The last 2015-2016 Ranking of Macedonian Higher Education Institutions was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia in 2015 and released on 1 March 2017. Nineteen qualified HEIs are included in the ranking. The ranking used 21 indicators of academic performance and competitiveness, covering core missions of HEIs such as teaching, research, and social services (see the link as follows). According to the last Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking the first ranked University in North Macedonia is University “ Cyril and Methodius”-Skopje (100 points) , while International Balkan University is ranked at the sixth position, but is the only University in North Macedonia which was scored with 100 points in field of “teaching and learning” (see Macedonian's HE Ranking 2015-2016 ).
The new Law on Higher Education (Official Gazette No. 82 from 08.05.2018) also stipulated the ranking of the higher education institutions, where the ranking of all universities listed in the register of higher education institutions is obligatory and shall be performed every three years. At the same time, the Law stipulates the responsibilities the Evaluation Board being responsible for monitoring and evaluation the quality of the educational activity, scientific research, artistic and professional activities of the academic staff of the higher education institutions, and especially their study programs, at least every five years.