Didactical in-service training of academic staff as a condition for quality assurance

The global expansion of university education and increased pressure on universities to enhance economic and social development has called for efficiency and effectiveness in university education systems. In the context of the current reform of the high education and considering the Bologna Declaration, it is obvious that contemporary university teaching is interactive in which the relation between the students and teachers is defined as partnership. In that sense, European Higher Education Area has made the development of teaching skills among teaching staff a priority.The importance of teaching competencies among teaching staff is often downplayed as compared to that of research competencies, with the latter, and not the former, often being considered as a criterion for career advancement at the university.In the Republic of Macedoniahas never been established a system which should provide systematic achieving of experiences and skills related to the teaching process for the academic staff. One of the integrative functions of the Universities should be organization and maintenance of this system. For such purposes in the frame of Mother Teresa University was established Center for Educational Policies and Training (CEPT) where already have started concrete activities by organizing seminar for modern trends in academic teaching and workshop for preparation of study programs and syllabuses in cooperation with prominent international partners. There are still opened issues related to legal status of CEPT, sustainable financial support, appropriate human resources which need to be solved as soon as possible in order to avoid any improvisation and its devaluation.