Overview of QA System

The first Law on Higher Education (Official Gazette 64/2000) introduced the quality assurance (QA) concepts in Macedonian higher education and provided for the establishment of the first national bodies within the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) responsible for QA- the Accreditation Board (AB) and the Evaluation Agency (EA). Within the last two decades, the quality assurance went through different phases of development and experienced many challenges (changes of the number and the composition of these bodies, merger of these two bodies into one Higher Education and Accreditation Board (HEAEB), introduction and withdrawal of the state exam etc.) that didn’t provide for greater efficiency of the QA system, nor for continuous quality enhancement of higher education.

Recognizing the lack of effective quality assurance system in HE, the national Strategy for Education 2018-2025 identifies the “Quality Assurance and Efficiency of Higher education in Line with European Good Practices” (MOES p.53) as its first strategic priority in the area of higher education and research, while the creation of the necessary preconditions for effective functioning of the body responsible for QA as one of the key expected results for the upcoming period. HEAEB is affiliate ENQA member as of October 2011. The novelties of the new Law on Higher Education (Official Gazette 82/2018) provided for the establishment of a new Agency for Quality in HE as independent legal entity that strives towards full ENQA membership.

(Source: Eurydice, page updated 31 March, 2021)