Home | News | 05.12.2024

🎓We are aware that it is by no means easy to define and implement a strategy for sustainable funding of HE. 😊 But also that the success of the ambitious plan to improve the contribution of the higher education system to innovation and competitiveness 🎯 will largely depend on the availability of sufficient financial resources 💰 and the country's ability to rely on allocation methods that encourage innovation 💡 for high performance 📈 and the efficient use of resources among higher education institutions. 🏫

As part of the overall objective of strengthening the competitiveness of Macedonian universities 🇲🇰 in a national and international context, the new model for financing higher education 🏛 should promote the following agenda:

▪ 📝 Identifying study programmes of public interest that should receive priority consideration for public funding;
▪ 🌐 Promotion of diversity in the missions of universities (teaching, research, regional engagement, etc.);
▪ 📚 Alignment with the reforms that are essential for full participation in the Bologna process;
▪ 🌍 Internationalisation of higher education; and
▪ 🏙 Strengthening the contribution of universities to local and regional development.

Based on the experience of OECD countries 🌏 over the past decade, as well as other international experiences, it is necessary to establish an adequate model for financing higher education that should satisfy the following eight principles:
1️⃣ Close coordination with national priorities 🎯
2️⃣ To be performance-based 🏆
3️⃣ To ensure equal access for all population groups ⚖️
4️⃣ To ensure objectivity and transparency ✨ in the process of allocating the funds
5️⃣ To ensure consistency and compatibility among different financial instruments 🔗
6️⃣ To be stable 🛡
7️⃣ To ensure institutional autonomy 🤝 and to be accountable 📊
8️⃣ To provide financing based on block transfers from the Central level to the VOs.

You can read the full World Bank report at the following link:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca/publication/europe-and-central-asia-economic-update