“Gaudeamus Igitur,” the anthem sung upon entering the academic community, is not merely a tradition, but a powerful message: learn, rejoice, but be aware that time is limited and that the knowledge you acquire is part of a greater, eternal story.
By Kiril Barbareev
Education is the most complex and most emotional pillar of society, and it cannot be understood or developed in isolation, but depends on the entire social system: institutions, laws, civic structure, and power. All of these, as Fichte points out, have their own original point, an initial state from which they begin. But the essential difference is that people do not start from the same place – each individual and each generation begins with the attitudes, values, and limitations inherited from their own era. Precisely for this reason, education is not only a matter of system, but also of culture, time, context, and the consciousness in which it is created and developed.
Historically, the most influential model of university education in Europe is the Humboldtian concept, rooted in German universities, which over the past two centuries has represented the philosophy of education in continental Europe. The founder of the University of Berlin, Wilhelm von Humboldt, emphasised the concept of “education and upbringing through science” (Bildung durch Wissenschaft), grounded in the idea of “spirit” – particularly national and cultural spirit. According to him, only through active participation in the research process is true academic knowledge acquired and truth created.
Science and teaching represent two essential features of the university from its earliest beginnings, and their order is not accidental: first comes science, the creation and understanding of knowledge, and then teaching, its transmission and sharing. That is why the university bears the name universitas litterarum – a community and totality of knowledge. Only one who has mastered the artes liberales – the liberal arts – and philosophy was considered ready to become doctus (learned), that is, “more than learned”: a person who not only possesses knowledge, but understands it, questions it, and is capable of sharing it with others. “Professors are not here for students, nor students for professors; they are here together for science” (Humboldt).
The contemporary world is a world of challenges and super-complexity. The characteristics of today’s life are reflected in the university as well. Since modernity demands individuals who are initiative-driven, energetic, self-confident, capable and ready to face challenges and generate new changes, today the university has a triple mission: to enable understanding of the world as a condition for confronting and adapting to it; to ensure active engagement in the world; and to build one’s own identity within it, which implies recognising the value of personal contribution, responsibility and place in it.
At the same time, today’s university is under strong pressure from the economy and the state, which increasingly push it—especially in undergraduate studies—towards “useful” professional education that promotes knowledge whose primary criterion is not so much its truth as its utility.
How do we cope with these challenges? – First, we must understand that higher education in Macedonia today stands between two strong and opposing traditions: the inherited model from former Yugoslavia and contemporary reforms inspired by the Anglo-American educational system. Understanding these two traditions is key to explaining why some reforms remain formal, without essential change in the quality of teaching, science, and social role.
Instead of a clear transformation, the university has for too long remained stuck at this crossroads – between socialist legacy and global educational trends, without fully understanding either. It is precisely in this ambiguity that the essence of the problem lies. Without a clear understanding of these two traditions, reforms often remain formal and declarative.
At this crossroads, education begins to face its own identity crisis – it does not know what it is, where it is going, or on which values it should be built. From this stems a deeper problem: a sense of educational and scientific incompleteness, insufficient self-awareness, and a constant search for validation outside one’s own system, instead of building an authentic philosophy of education that would create a sustainable Macedonian educational system.
In practice, instead of a full transformation, there has been a parallel existence of two different educational cultures. In the Humboldtian idea of the university, there exists an ideal of unity between research and teaching. But in many post-socialist contexts, including ours, this ideal has transformed into the formal authority of the professor, without genuine research interaction. Knowledge is most often understood as something transmitted from professor to student, often reduced in practice to reproductive learning, with a strong emphasis on theoretical knowledge and authority. Students often graduate with knowledge, but without sufficient preparedness for complex situations, decision-making, and professional adaptation. In contrast, the Anglo-Saxon and North American traditions are more oriented towards practical needs and skills.
Where traditions of international cooperation, mobility, and inclusion in the global academic community have been established, the connection between teaching and research becomes evident. These scientific cores and the involvement of younger staff have created significant research groups that show that, where openness and connectivity exist, the university can live its true mission.
However, Macedonian higher education is not unsuccessful because of its tradition, but because of the insufficient transformation of that tradition in a contemporary context. We fail to create a new philosophical paradigm for education for reasons that are not only institutional but also cultural. The legacy of former Yugoslavia provides a stable foundation, a tradition that gives a sense of stability – but also resistance to questioning, resistance to change, and limited space for critical thinking and discussion.
The clash between the traditional and the contemporary educational model is not only a matter of methods, but a matter of meaning. It reveals a deeper weakness: the absence of an authentic philosophy of education that should honestly respond to our context – what kind of person do we want to develop? In what kind of society do we live? Which values truly matter?
This means creating a synthesis: from tradition we take depth and systematicity, from the contemporary we focus on critical thinking, science, and practicality. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” This thought points to the essence of education. True reform must begin with three things: the quality of teaching, the development of scientific culture, and the connection between the university and society. The value of the university is not measured only by how many papers are published, but by where students are after graduation, what kind of academic citizens it creates, how many young researchers it develops, and how much real value the knowledge produced has for the community. Macedonia needs a reform that will restore the dignity of teaching, strengthen research as a process (not merely as a number), and restore trust in the university as a place where the future is created, not just an academic statistic.
The university is a mirror of modern society – its values, tendencies, and the spirit of the time are reflected in it, which is why it is often called its barometer. But when it “shows the wrong time,” it should not be ignored or broken, but carefully analysed and acted upon. History confirms this: as Nikolay Pirogov points out, when political life unfolds stably and without destructive influences on society, the university returns to its essential mission – scientific activity and the creation of knowledge.
“Gaudeamus Igitur,” the anthem sung upon entering the academic community, is not merely a tradition, but a powerful message: learn, rejoice, but be aware that time is limited and that the knowledge you acquire is part of a greater, eternal story.
(The author is a professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, UGD–Shtip.)
The text was developed within the project “Advocacy for Inclusive Development,” financially supported by the Government of Switzerland through the Civica Mobilitas programme.
The content of this text is the sole responsibility of the Forum for Reasonable Policies, IOHN, and BIRC, and in no way can be considered to reflect the views of the Government of Switzerland, Civica Mobilitas, or the implementing organisations.