The strategies of the International Slavic University “Gavrilo Romanovic Derzhavin”, regarding the goals and priorities of the activities of Erasmus + in the context of the Lifelong Learning Program are part of its mission. Namely, the university is dedicated to creating and nurturing cultural and social values. The university, being committed to providing quality education to young professionals, qualified and highly trained, prepares them to be fully competitive in the national and international labor markets. In this area, the objectives refer to activities within the undergraduate and graduate studies (first and second cycle), research and training, competency development, quality assurance and cooperation with external partners of the university.
Withing the activities to move closer to the European higher education area, the university implements its specific policy of openness to new partnerships, especially with EU universities, in order to accelerate the implementation of the priorities of the Action Plan of the Strategy for international cooperation.
On April 30th, 2018, on the premises of the International Slavic University “Gavrilo Romanivich Derzhavin” in Sveti Nikole a cooperation agreement with the Faculty of Economics, from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) was signed for a joint implementation of the graduate studies program Business and Organization in the Republic of North Macedonia. This Master’s degree programme was named among the top 100 in the world by the Financial Times.
Also, within St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the University of Veliko Tarnova from Bulgaria a bilateral agreement for starting doctoral studies in the Republic of North Macedonia was signed. Thus, since 2018, 57 progammes for doctoral studies in various fields have become available to the students from the Republic of North Macedonia, at the ISU in Sveti Nikole.
The International Slavic University has a solid administrative structure composed of officially responsible people among the professors reinforced with students who are volunteers. At the top of the organizational structure is the Rector of the university, who is in charge of signing bilateral agreements. The head of the International Relations Office is the Chief Coordinator of Erasmus + Programme, who work with the help of volunteers in the Office of International Relations. The head of the International Relations Office has the responsibility to coordinate the Erasmus coordinators of each faculty individually selected from among the professors. These professors, together with the ECTS coordinator, are responsible for the primary selection of candidates.
In this context, our most important goal are the students, because we invest in their future, in order to create intellectuals equipped with theoretical and practical skills that will be competitive in the labor market in Europe. Our students, together with the students from the partner universities, work on joint projects that they complete during the academic year. Many student activities increase every year in quality and quantity. It is extremely important to mention that the International Slavic University is an institution that easily accepts and implements the initiatives of students, in order to improve the quality of their theoretical and practical teaching. Students are very important, but the teaching staff is also important and they are the biggest motivators and supporters of student activities.
The International Slavic University is part of the growing network of international academic communities in building new forms of creative collaboration in line with global scientific, technological and educational innovations.
By participating in the Erasmus Programme, the university will contribute to the realization of the goals of the program: to create a European area of higher education and to encourage innovation throughout Europe, as well as to contribute to the goal of several million individual Erasmus participants in student mobility.
The participation in the Erasmus Programme also enables the International Slavic University to improve and increase the scope of cooperation with many other higher education institutions.
Due to the fact that the university has established and implemented European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), the participation in the Erasmus Mobility Program contributes to increasing the quality and compatibility of study programs, as well as increasing the degree of transparency between qualifications acquired in Europe. Participation in the Erasmus Programme also contributes to the development of methods based on the best practices and the transfer of innovative solutions in the field of education, which on the other hand, will have a direct impact on the future employment of the graduate students.
The university has already concluded a number of Erasmus inter-university cooperation agreements, including a number of universities from Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, Croatia, Malta, France and Algeria. Among partners with whom we have already deepened the cooperation are the University of Malta, the University of Lorraine in France, Palcký University Olomouc and Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, the University of Evora in Portugal, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança in Portugal, Compultense University of Madrid in Spain, and University of Foggia in Italy.
