Current Affairs
North Macedonia students get anonymous platform to report campus problems as many consider emigrating
AI-generated illustration
Adapted from Global Voices · Daria Dergacheva
A student media outlet in North Macedonia has launched Digital Student Voice, an online platform where students can anonymously report problems with universities and student life. A 2026 survey suggests over 76 percent of students are thinking of emigrating.
Over 76%of North Macedonian students in a 2026 survey said they are thinking of emigrating
The facts
- 1Goshe Nikolov started the Instagram page Studentarija in 2017 from a dormitory room in Skopje, first as a place to share memes and relatable student content.
- 2From 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the page shifted toward real student problems, as students sent questions and complaints to its inbox.
- 3Reports about universities, dormitories, textbooks and public services piled up in direct messages, so the team wanted a more organized way to collect, categorize and follow up on them.
- 4Studentarija has over 65,000 subscribers, a notable figure in a country with 53,000 students. Nikolov runs it with a team of three and nine years of experience.
- 5The platform was built with a Digital Democracy Initiative grant. The excerpt does not say how many reports it has received or whether any problems have been resolved.
Why it matters
Students cite quality of life and finding work that fits their qualifications as reasons to leave. A structured reporting channel is one way students try to push for change at home, though results are not yet shown.
Sources
- Adapted from Global Voices: Students air their frustrations anonymously online as emigration tempts many young people in North Macedonia · Daria Dergacheva · Source license
