PAST EVENTS
Education allows creative approaches for students to
gain practical knowledge and can always be changed
if it is deemed to be problematic in some way. He
pointed out that universities were responsible to
take measures to ensure that their students’ internships were substantive and met learning goals, not
the Ministry.
Panelists agreed that, though important for the
development of soft skills, internships were not the
only way for universities to increase student readiness for the workplace. Universities working in the
country also need to work continually to ensure the
relevance of their standard programs to the “real
world” via practices such as encouraging balanced
profiles of teaching staff with academic and private
sector experience, case-based classroom learning,
inviting relevant guest speakers from the business
community, in-class team project simulations based
on real business needs and more. The current Law on
Higher Education says nothing on these key matters
but does now require universities to include representatives from business on their academic councils.
Panelist Dr. Biljana Sekulovska Gaber, Vice Dean of
Cyril & Methodius University’s Faculty of Economics
applauded this requirement and said that without it,
State universities would likely remain closed to feedback from outside academia.
Panelist Romela Popovik Trajkova, Head of Economic
Policy, Structural Regulatory Reforms & Investments
in the Cabinet of the Vice Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, highlighted the government’s Innovation Fund which should be launched this summer,
as a cooperation opportunity that would require proactivity from both the business and university communities. She explained the Fund could be used to
support university