REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA AND THE BENEFITS OF ACCESSION TO THE BOLOGNA PROCESS

Abstract

In June 1999, the European Ministers of Education adopted the Bologna Declaration, which committed signatory countries to make reforms in the structure of higher education systems. Declaration aims were to create a "European Higher Education Area" (EHEA) as of 2010, and achieving three main objectives:
- international competitiveness;
- mobility;
- and readiness for employment.
By signing the Bologna Declaration at the ministerial meeting held in Berlin in September 2003, the Republic of Macedonia joined the Bologna process. The Bologna prosecc and the predicted reforms are focused on the harmonization of the higher education system in Europe, as well as on the transparency in the work of the higher education isntitutions, which is needed in order to increase the mobility of the students and the professors at the higher education insitutions. Additionally, of great importance is the need for a higher international competition of thehigher education institutions.
Every two years, the Ministers from the signaroty countries of the Bologna Declaration hold meetings to refer for the achievments made in the Bologna process and adopta a concluding document, in which the priorities for the next years are predicted.
The aim of the research in this paper is to see how respondents are familiar with the basic principles of the Bologna Declaration, as it is applied in the institutions where respondents work or study and how it contributes to improving the higher education system in the country. The increase and facilitation of the mobility of the perofessors/students is examined, as well as the facilitation of the educational process, as a whole.