site.btaEducation Minister: Students in 18 Courses Do Not Pay Tuition Fees

Students in 18 courses do not pay tuition fees, Education Minister Galin Tsokov said on Wednesday at the opening of a two-day international conference on social inclusion in higher education and microcredit, as quoted by the press centre of his Ministry on Wednesday. "Thanks to this, there is an increasing interest in protected majors in important professional fields such as physical and chemical sciences, mathematics, education, chemical technology, energy, religion and theology, materials and material science," he added.

The Minister gave the example of pedagogical sciences, where after the abolition of fees the number of both applicants and students in such courses has increased significantly.

"This policy of waiving fees of certain specialties should continue. In the future, special scholarships should be considered for children from families with lower social status who want to study higher education," Tsokov underlined.

Tsokov noted that in recent years Bulgaria has been pursuing a policy to include children and students from different communities, including refugees, in the education system. This year's legislative amendments enabled 400 students with international protection status to study in Bulgarian universities under the tuition procedures for Bulgarian and European students.

The international conference is held within the framework of the START project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, which is implemented by the Directorate of Higher Education at the Education Ministry in partnership with the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (NEAA), the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) and the Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants.

The event was attended by Council of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions in Bulgaria Chair Miglena Temelkova, NEAA President Elisa Stefanova, Unit Higher Education, DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture Head Vanessa Vanessa Debier-Santon, UNESCO Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean Director Francesc Pedró, European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education Director Aleksandar Šušnjar, ARACIS Director Daniela Cristina Ghiţulică, representatives of the Flemish and British Quality Assurance Agencies for Higher Education, rectors, representatives of business and various institutions.