site.btaUniversities Stop Expansions, Scrap Non-traditional Courses

Varna, on the Black Sea, October 21 (BTA) - Universities will stop expansions with branches in different cities and will no longer offer courses that are not typical for the profile of the respective university. This transpired  Saturday at a meeting of the Rectors' Council which comprises the heads of establishments of higher education in Bulgaria. The meeting was also attended by Education Minister Krassimir Vulchev.

Sofia University Rector Prof. Atanas Gerdjikov spoke about the need for legal amendments to allow universities to dismiss teachers without the obligation to transfer them to another department and keep the tenured position.

Krassimir Vulchev warned about a looming shortage of university teachers in the coming years and urged the establishments to attract young people. Vulchev said that although the network of state-funded universities is well structured and matches the development of the individual regions, the expansion of universities with branches in different cities has had a negative effect. The Minister said that while in the 1990s only 30 per cent of school graduates got admitted to university, now the share is 80 per cent. Vulchev said that the financing of higher education establishments is being restructured, along with the number of student admissions. In his words, this will help the system to restructure by itself within a couple of years during which the unnecessary divisions will drop out.

Vulchev noted that the focus should be on the training in professions in respect of which shortages of labour are felt or expected, such as engineers, agronomists, energy experts, chemistry researchers, school teachers in maths, physics and IT.

The Rector of the University of National and World Economy, Prof. Stati Statev, spoke about the need to increase the pay of university teachers. Statev said that it will be impossible to attract young people as university teachers when the salary of an assistant professor is lower than than of a school teacher.

Varna Economy University Rector Prof. Plamen Iliev said that the universities should have the ability to adjust tuition fees in accordance with increases in the minimum wage.