Macedonia

GENERAL INFO
Macedonia is a country in South-East of Europe. The
county is a little bit smaller than the Netherlands and
has 2 million inhabitants. The capital city of
Macedonia is Skopje, located in the north of Macedonia next to the river Vardar. Skopje is a city
with approximately 500.000 inhabitants, a big industrial area and an international airport.
Macedonias neighbouring countries are Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. The country has a
continental climate and is not directly connected to the sea.

UNIVERSITIES
Macedonia has a total of 19 universities, but most of these are very small and are very low
ranked. The biggest and best university of Macedonia is Ss Cyril and Methodius University of
Skopje. This University has approximately 50.000 students and a academic staff of over 2000
people. It is possible to follow 23 different courses on this university including Mathematics,
Philosophy, Forestry, Economics and Pedagogy. These primary language of the university is
Macedonian, but some courses can be followed in other languages, including English and
German. However, the university is ranked only 1256
th
of the world, which is higher than all
other universities in Macedonia, but still is not a good score. Moreover, all courses that are given
on this university are given on other universities as well, so for foreigners there is no real reason
to study here instead of somewhere else.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, has an
international airport with direct flights to
Dortmund, Frankfurt, Rome and even
Eindhoven. However, further transport through
Macedonia might be a little harder. It is possible
to travel by train, but this is not advised, because
trains dont ride very frequently and are not very
fast. Instead, most travelling is done by bus.
These busses are not very comfortable, but it is
easy and cheap to buy tickets and it is fairly easy
to go to almost everywhere in or outside the
country. In Skopje, public transport is also
provided by busses. Most busses are fairly old
and not that comfortable, but they can bring you
anywhere in the city. Bus service is provided
from 5 am till 11 pm. Alternatively, it is possible
to travel by taxi. Taxi-travelling is not very
expensive but might not always be a good way to
travel around, because you need to wait for a taxi to come before you can go anywhere with it.

ACCOMMODATION
In Macedonia, most Universities provide accommodation for small fee. These student flats are
normally fairly decent and also close to the university. However, this is not always the case,
which means you might need to find accommodation yourself. Most student accommodation in
Skopje is, to put it lightly, not up to Dutch standards. Rooms are often very small, unhygienic
and they might lack the needed furniture. An alternative to this is to try to find a cheap place
somewhere outside the city, but transport to Skopje is not very comfortable, so living
somewhere else is not advised.

WORK AND EXPENSES
Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe. The GDP per capita is only $10.000
(measured in American Dollars)
1
. This has the advantage that travelling and living in Macedonia
is much cheaper than in most European countries, also stimulated by the low taxes. Similarly,
most universities in Macedonia are very cheap, with the exception of some private universities.
However, if you want to work and study at the same time, you will earn not even nearly as much
as you would here. This is if you are even able to find a job. Macedonia has a youth-
unemployment rate of more than 55%, making it the chance you can find a job very small.

CONCLUSION
Macedonia is not a very good country for Students. The country does not have any influential or
highly ranked universities, public transport is very poor and finding good accommodation is
difficult. Moreover, Macedonia has very high youth unemployment, which makes finding a job
very difficult. However, the country in general is very cheap, which makes it a good country for a
student if you are able to find a job or if you already have a lot of money.

1
Macedonia has a big informal sector that might not be reflected in these data.