site.btaEducation Ministry Undertakes to Change University Admission Ordinance

Education Ministry Undertakes to Change University Admission Ordinance

Sofia, February 9 (BTA) - The Education Ministry is undertaking changes to an ordinance regulating higher school admission, Education Minister Nikolai Denkov told journalists on Thursday. He was speaking after a meeting with rectors of universities teaching humanities courses.

Denkov said that rectors raised the issue of admissions in the academic year 2017/2018 and an ordinance which reduced admissions in a number of professional fields, including the humanities. He said that the ordinance aimed to address imbalances in professional fields, where students fail to find jobs after graduation.

In some humanities courses, as few as 35-39 per cent of university graduates manage to find a job which means that universities turn out more specialists than the labour market needs. Denkov said that the rectors were right in their observation that if the same mechanism continues to be used, the number of new admissions will reach a critical low.

Rectors also raised the issue of financing of humanities disciplines. The Education Minister said that new rules were adopted and put in place in January, under which the subsidy per student in a humanities course has been increased by 15 per cent. The Minister said that the increase will calm some of the rectors' concerns.

Attending the briefing were Lyuben Totev, chair of the Council of the Higher Education Institutions in Bulgaria and Rector of the University of Mining and Geology, Sofia University Rector Anastas Gerdjikov and University of National and World Economy Rector Stati Statev. They said they were satisfied with the messages of Minister Denkov and that they were looking forward to working with him.