The European Educational Space

Survey: The European Educational Space and Higher Education in the Republic of Macedonia
The increased engagement (at the state level) in the Republic of Macedonia, particularly in the field of education, prompted Professors Suzana Dzhamtoska-Zdravkovska, Mishel Pavlovski and Loreta Georgivska-Jakovleva to carry out research dedicated to the question of whether (and how) the Macedonian higher education system contributed to the integration of the Republic of Macedonia within the European Union. The term ‘European educational space’ was launched in March of 2010 during a Ministerial Conference held in Vienna (Austria) and Budapest (Romania). The history of this term, however, can be traced back to 1949, when the Council of Europe was established, and with that, the opportunity to study abroad became recognized as an essential element of European integration. This approach found its confirmation in the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 2 of the First Protocol) of 1952, in the European Convention on the Equivalence of Periods of University Study of 1956, the European Convention on the Academic Recognition of University Qualifications of 1959, all the way to the European Convention on the General Equivalence of Periods of University Studies of 1990 and the Bologna Declaration of 1999. An important act in the establishment of the ‘European educational space’ was the adoption of the Lisbon Declaration, in April of 1997, which established the mechanisms needed “for official recognition by the competent authority of the value of foreign educational qualification with a view to access to educational activities and/or employment” (Lisbon Declaration). In addition, emphasis has been placed on the conditions that need be met in order to achieve these set goals, i.e., the processes of assessment and recognition of the qualifications “solely on the basis of the achieved knowledge and skills”.
Survey by the Goce Delchev University
The first step of this research focused on the publication of the results of the survey conducted with students of the Faculty of Law, the Department of Journalism, at the Goce Delchev University (Shtip, Macedonia), to be included in the third issue of the journal Култура/Culture.
The Survey and Roundtable at the State University in Tetovo (22.10.2012)
The second step aimed at gathering more comprehensive results (namely, the roundtable held and the survey conducted with first and second year undergraduate students of English Language and Literature at the State University in Tetovo, on the topic of “The European Education Space and Higher Education in the Republic of Macedonia”. The initial results say that Macedonian students do not feel equal with students from other European countries in terms of the quality of study and the opportunities to study outside their home country. The main reasons students cite are a lack of quality study conditions and a lack of quality instructors.