Macedonian universities on the Shanghai ranking list: what have we done so far and what should we do from now on?

The socioeconomic development of society is increasingly dependent on "knowledge factories", i.e. universities. But, are Macedonian universities creating new knowledge that enables "a competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion"ma? Actually, Macedonian higher education and science have been in an extremely difficult situation for decades, with investments in scientific research being incomparably smaller than most of the countries in the region. The paper presents insights into the reasons why Macedonian universities are not ranked on the prestigious Shanghai list. We compare several indicators for scientific productivity and quality of Macedonian science with countries in the region. Then we assess the research performance threshold that a Macedonian university must meet to appear on the Shanghai list. The paper presents some policy solutions for the advancement of Macedonian science, with proposals aimed at the government and proposals aimed at universities.