Albanian Graduates Hit Hardest by ‘Outdated’ North Macedonia Ranking System

In early 2025, when Emine Haxhiu Memishi applied for the post of Junior Associate at North Macedonia’s Ministry of Economy and Labour, she did so armed with a degree in economics from Istanbul Commerce University, an average grade of 9.88, a year of professional training behind her, and a readiness to return to her homeland when so many like her do not. There was another grade, however, that Haxhiu Memishi hadn’t factored in, one that did not feature on her diploma, in her grade average, or the recommendation letters written by her professors – 0.5, the coefficient assigned by North Macedonia to any foreign university that does not feature on the three big international rankings lists. Haxhiu Memishi fell at the very first stage of the recruitment process. “I felt disappointed and treated unfairly,” the 31-year-old told BIRN. “It was difficult for me to accept that a candidate with a 9.88 average grade, a degree in economics, and professional experience in Turkey and London would be eliminated at the very first stage.” Until recently, recruitment to the state administration in North Macedonia was subject to a so-called ‘Balancer’, introduced to ensure fair representation of minority communities, of which Albanians like Haxhiu Memishi are by far the biggest. In October 2024, however, the Balancer was struck down by the Constitutional Court based on a complaint that it facilitated abuses in public sector hiring. To plug the gap, the government approved in April a Law on Fair and Adequate Representation, but the legislation has become bogged down in parliament, where some Albanian lawmakers say it doesn’t go far enough. Such a law, which concerns the rights of non-majority communities, requires the support of a majority of MPs from those communities, which has so far proved elusive. In the meantime, there is nothing to offset what critics say is an outdated and discriminatory system of grading universities and, by extension, their graduates, often to the detriment of Albanians who make up roughly a quarter of North Macedonia’s population of 1.8 million people. “University rankings may serve as an indicator for institutional analysis, but they should not be a determining factor in the recruitment of individuals,” said Berat Dehari, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the European University in Skopje. “Recruitment should be based on merit, competence and professional ability.” Albanians disproportionately affected Emine Haxhiu Memishi is still unsure whether she would apply for another public sector job. Photo: Courtesy of Haxhiu Memishi. Without a new Law on Fair and Adequate Representation, hiring to the state administration is regulated by the 2014 Law on Administrative Servants and an accompanying decree that sets out a three-stage recruitment process. The first stage assigns points to each candidate for a position based on education, work experience, formal and non-formal education, and computer skills. The largest share of the points, a maximum of 30 out of a total of 40, is awarded for education. A candidate’s degree average, however, is multiplied by the coefficient assigned to the university they graduated from. Coefficients are applied to foreign universities depending on their ranking on one of three international ranking lists – Shanghai Ranking-ARWU, Times Higher Education-World University Rankings, and QS World University Rankings – and to local universities based on their ranking by the Ministry of Education. Any university that is not ranked, such as Istanbul Commerce University – receives the lowest possible coefficient – 0.5. That means Haxhiu Memishi’s 9.88 average translated into 4.94 points; in the same recruitment process, a candidate with an average of 7.0 from North Macedonia’s state-funded Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje would have 14 points, thanks to this university’s 2.0 coefficient – the maximum. In 2025, less than eight per cent of 2,707 students who graduated from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University were Albanians. Most Albanians go to the country’s two Albanian-language public universities: The University of Tetovo and the smaller Mother Teresa University in Skopje. With some 7,800 students in 2023/2024, the University of Tetovo is the second biggest in the country yet is eighth out of 19 educational institutions on the Ministry of Education’s rankings list, giving it a coefficient of 1.43. Mother of Teresa University was established in 2016, but since the ministry has not updated its rankings since then, it has a coefficient of 0.5 – the lowest possible. By law, the ministry should update its ranking every three years. It did not respond to requests for comment. Muhamed Krasniqi, Deputy Director of the Agency for Administration, which manages the hiring of staff to the public administration, said: “It often happens that candidates who hold degrees from certain universities, either in the country or abroad, even though they have high average grades, are excluded from the opportunity to continue to the second stage of the competition.” Coefficient ‘outdated’ Suhejb Mehmedi, a student at Mother Teresa University and the university’s student advocate, says students should be judged by their achievements and work, not by the university they attended. Photo: Courtesy of Mehmedi. For years, the so-called Balancer ensured that the representation of communities in the public administration reflected their share of the population, partially offsetting the effect of the university coefficient. The new Law on Fair and Adequate Representation should establish a new framework for fair representation in the public sector, but unlike the Balancer, it does not provide for fixed quotas or sanctions against institutions that fail to ensure fair representation. Instead, the law envisages ‘political measures’ to be specified through secondary legislation within six months of the law’s adoption by parliament. This omission has been seized upon by opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, the Democratic Union for Albanians, DUI, and the Alliance for Albanians, which argue that implementation of the law will effectively be voluntary. VLEN, the Albanian junior partner to the VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, insists the law is good and will guarantee equal opportunities and treatment for all citizens. In the meantime, universities and their students are at the mercy of the rankings system. The University of Tetovo told BIRN it has written to the Ministry of Education and the Supreme Court regarding the rankings but said it had not received a response. “This unequal treatment of candidates constitutes clear discrimination, reducing the value of universities that have successfully completed all stages of accreditation, met the required teaching staff standards, and fulfilled all relevant criteria,” the university said in a written response for this story. “Graduates of our university are employed without any problems anywhere in the world, yet they face discrimination in their own country.” The situation facing Mother Teresa University is arguably even more alarming. “The state established Mother Teresa University, accredited it, and recognised it as a public university, but because it has failed to update the ranking list, graduates of this university are treated with the lowest possible coefficient,” said Blendi Hodai, director of the grassroots NGO Forum for Educational Change. “Students cannot be penalised because the ministry has not produced a new ranking,” Hodai told BIRN. “If a university has been established by the state and operates as part of the public system, then it is unacceptable for its graduates to be treated as less valuable in recruitment competitions organised by the state itself.” Hodai said the huge range in coefficients hardly reflects the true quality of universities. “Ss. Cyril and Methodius University has a coefficient equivalent to two or three other universities combined,” he said. “Perhaps that would make sense if it were among the best universities in the world. But today, when it is not even among the world’s top 500, top 1,000 or top 2,000 universities, this gap cannot easily be justified.” “In practice, it favours one university while undervaluing the others, and it harms students because they are assessed not on their knowledge and abilities, but on an outdated coefficient.” Suhejb Mehmedi, a student at Mother Teresa University and the university’s student advocate, agreed. “It is not right for a degree from a public, accredited university to be assessed using the lowest coefficient,” said Mehmedi, 24. “Assessment should be based on the quality of education, not on criteria that place students in an unequal position. This creates the feeling that our hard work and commitment are not being properly recognised.” Mother Teresa University did not respond to requests for comment. Equal treatment? Berat Dehari, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the European University in Skopje, says university rankings may be useful for assessing institutions but should not determine the recruitment of individuals. Photo: Courtesy of Dehari. Private universities in North Macedonia tend to come in the lower half of the ministry’s rankings. FON University in Skopje, for example, has a coefficient of 1.09, while MIT University, also in the capital, trails with 0.99. Dehari, of the private European University of Skopje, said the system discriminates against graduates of private universities “by limiting their opportunities for employment in the public administration”. “This undermines legal certainty and the principle of equal treatment.” None of the private universities contacted wished to comment publicly on the impact of the system on their graduates, while North Macedonia’s Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination said it had not received any complaints concerning the university coefficient or the place of study. Asked whether the methodology could be considered discriminatory, the Commission said that “in certain procedures this may be possible, but the assessment of whether discrimination exists depends on whether this criterion has a legitimate aim, such as improving the quality of the public administration”. “All circumstances must be examined; the assessment always depends on the specific case and cannot be considered in general terms.” The Agency for Administration said it does not keep data on the universities attended by individuals recruited to the state administration. Krasniqi, the Agency’s deputy director, acknowledged the problem. “I believe that this system does not ensure fair assessment and equal opportunities for all candidates, because it is unrealistic for such a ranking to determine the practical evaluation of a candidate’s knowledge,” he told BIRN, and called for “direct intervention” in the Law on State Servants. The Ministry of Public Administration said all candidates are treated equally. “The ranking of universities in relevant international rankings was envisaged as an additional indicator of academic quality and candidates’ competence,” the ministry said. “The criteria for assessing higher education institutions are applied equally to all candidates, regardless of their ethnic background, the language in which they studied, or the country where they obtained their education,” it told BIRN. The ministry conceded, however, that is looking at how the system might be changed, without giving a timeframe. “In this process, different models and solutions are being considered with the aim of ensuring a fair, transparent and merit-based system.” North Macedonia an outlier Muhamed Krasniqi, Deputy Director of the Agency for Administration, which oversees recruitment to the public administration, says candidates with degrees from certain universities, either in North Macedonia or abroad, are often excluded from progressing to the second stage of the recruitment process despite having high grade averages. Photo: Courtesy of Krasniqi. No country in the region has a similar methodology when it comes to public sector hiring. In neighbouring Albania, candidates are evaluated based on professional experience, training, qualifications and performance results. University rankings are not considered. In Kosovo, the assessments are based on education, professional experience and the skills required for the position. Serbia, through the government service responsible for human resources management, tests candidates’ knowledge, skills and abilities through selection panels, again without any coefficient based on global rankings. In practice, in all three of these countries, politics plays a part: the ruling parties of the day frequently fill public sector posts with party activists, supporters, and their friends and relatives. In July 2025, the European Parliament called on North Macedonia – a candidate for EU accession – to further modernise a merit-based public administration, address its politicisation, and ensure accountability within public institutions. The European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report highlighted specific shortcomings in appointment procedures, noting that in some cases selected candidates lacked the relevant professional experience or did not meet qualification criteria. Haxhiu Memishi is still pondering whether to apply again to join the public administration. “I am not asking for special treatment,” she said. “But I am asking for fair and equal treatment. If a degree has been recognised and accepted by the competent institutions, then it should not be devalued solely because of the university coefficient.” This article was produced within the framework of MOST – Media Organisations for Stronger Transnational Journalism, a Journalism Partnership funded by the Creative Europe programme that supports independent media specialising in international reporting.