An analysis of the rise of English-taught programmes in the North Macedonian context: the impact of policy spillover.

This study examines the proliferation of English-medium instruction (EMI) within North Macedonia's higher education system, a context emblematic of broader regional trends towards Europeanisation in the Western Balkans. Moving beyond the steering at a distance framework (Kickert, 1995), we analyse EMI development through the lens of post-socialist state-building and marketisation. Employing social process tracing (Kaas et al., 2025), we analysed higher education policy documents and regulations, complemented by interviews with key decision-makers to map the trajectory of English-taught programmes. Contrary to the assumption that EMI growth is driven by explicit language planning, our findings reveal a consistent pattern of policy spillover. We demonstrate that while no national policy explicitly mandated EMI, successive reforms-aimed variously at multilingual inclusion, privatisation, marketisation, Bologna harmonisation, and institutional liberalisation-inadvertently created the conditions for EMI to thrive. This study contributes to the literature by reframing EMI institutionalisation not merely as a pedagogical or linguistic goal, but as an institutionalised by-product of broader governance transformations. These findings offer significant implications for policymakers and researchers, suggesting that effective language planning requires analysing the unintended consequences of macro-level governance reforms.