Mickoski at Goce Delchev University in Stip: "Travel and learn, then come back to Macedonia"

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski urged students to travel and learn abroad but to return and build their lives in North Macedonia, speaking today at the first academic hour at Goce Delchev University (UGD) in Stip.

Address to freshmen

About 1,500 freshmen enrolled across 12 faculties and three academies at Goce Delchev University for the 2026–2027 academic year. In his address to students and faculty, Mickoski asked university staff to pass knowledge on to the new generation and to serve as educators and role models.

He told the assembled students that teachers carry a responsibility that extends beyond the classroom: "From that knowledge you will pass on depends also their families in the future, their children, their grandchildren and everything that will follow as a challenge in their life. Use that opportunity, be part of their youth, but also be part of their life in the years to come. Having the most beautiful job in the world, it must be an honor for you, but also a responsibility, because few have such responsibility and opportunity in life. Therefore, my advice and my message to my colleagues, your professors, is be what you must be, be their educators and their example how in the future they should be an example for their children and for their families," Mickoski said.

Recalling his own student years and spells in several European cities, he said that what guided him was always his native country. "Wherever I went, I returned back and I knew that here I would form my family and continue my life. In that way I raise my two sons, Jovan and Antonij — to travel, acquire knowledge, make friends, see the world and wherever they have the opportunity, never to refuse that opportunity. But in the end, to return home and together at home to fight for our common homeland North Macedonia," he added.

Rector Dejan Mirakovski welcomed first-year students and said they will remember this day. Mirakovski reminded students that university life is both an honor and a responsibility and that the campus should be a place where questions are asked, truths are examined and ideas for the future are born. He quoted Goce Delchev: "I understand the world only as a field for cultural competition among peoples," and underlined UGD’s European partnerships, including membership in the ACE2-EU alliance and more than 400 cooperation agreements with universities across Europe.

m-r. Ana Mihajlov, director of the National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility, encouraged students to apply for Erasmus+ and other mobility opportunities, stressing that such experiences can reshape students’ outlook while reminding them that North Macedonia needs their knowledge when they return. Student representative Matej Boshkovski invited freshmen to join student organizations and pointed to UGD’s digital platforms and Erasmus+ and ACE2-EU mobility opportunities. After the first academic hour, about 1,500 freshmen will meet with their deans and professors at their home faculties.

Photo: press material from the event