It seems hard to believe sometimes, but after 110 or so episodes of this show, there are still a few countries we haven’t been to. One of them is today’s destination of Bulgaria. It’s not a place which is often top of mind as far as higher education goes, but maybe it should be.
Among European countries, Bulgaria has been one of the leaders in dealing with a question of sharply declining youth populations. In recent months, it’s had an interesting showdown with students over tuition fees and, unrelatedly, a major youth backed movement succeeded in forcing an elected government to resign. And to round it all off the country has one of the world’s most interesting systems of national rankings. One which takes a balanced use of student surveys and administrative data, the latter of which includes, uniquely, data taken directly from the national tax system that follows graduates for up to seven years.
Today my guest is Georgi Stoytchev. He’s the Executive Director of the Open Society Institute in Bulgaria, an organization which is a major presence in Bulgarian higher education including, among other things, organizing that very intriguing set of rankings. He and I range over a wide number of issues in this discussion, including the structure of Bulgarian higher education, the politics of population decline, and of course, how universities in Bulgaria came, to some extent at least, to love rankings.
All in all, an excellent conversation about an often unjustly overlooked country. And so without further ado, here’s Georgi.
The World of Higher Education Podcast
Episode 4.22 | Higher Education in Bulgaria: Rankings, Reform, and Demographic Pressures
Transcript
Alex Usher (AU): Georgi, welcome. We’ve never had a Bulgarian guest on our show. When we come to a country for the first time, we like to set the stage and ask about the system of higher education there. So tell us about higher education in Bulgaria. Is it just universities, or are there other institutions like polytechnics or Fachhochschulen? Is it a particularly research-focused or teaching-focused system? Are there lots of specialized universities? What does a newcomer need to know about higher education in Bulgaria?
Georgi Stoytchev (GS): Bulgaria is a small country with a population of 6.5 million people, and we have 51 higher education institutions of all kinds: universities, specialized universities, specialized higher education schools, and colleges. All of them are recognized, and all of them are degree-awarding institutions established by a decision of Parliament.
In terms of research, we have 12 research universities recognized by the state. These universities have to meet certain criteria in order to be recognized, and once you are recognized as a research university, you receive additional funding from the state for your research activities.
One thing that is specific to Bulgaria in terms of research is that the biggest research hub in the country is the Bulgarian Academy of Science, which is not a university and not a higher education institution. That explains, to a certain extent, the performance of Bulgarian institutions in global rankings, because almost half of all research papers produced in Bulgaria are produced outside higher education institutions.
AU: What about specialized universities? I think you have police universities and things like that.
GS: Yes, they exist. We have technical universities, medical universities, a police academy, and agricultural universities. We also have specialized higher education schools which provide a degree called a professional bachelor. It’s a shorter degree than the typical bachelor’s degree in Bulgaria. You have to study four years to get a bachelor’s degree, while for a professional bachelor you study only three years, and it’s directly linked to the labour market.
AU: What has the evolution of Bulgarian higher education been since the end of the socialist period 35 years ago? Obviously you’ve retained a big Academy of Sciences, so you’re a little different from some neighbouring countries that way. Did Bulgaria get a big private higher education influx after 1989 the way Poland did? What were the main strategies for building up the system again after the economic crises of the early 1990s?
GS: Look, what happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall was a liberalization of the system on the one hand, and an expansion of the system on the other. The system expanded in two ways. On the one hand, private universities were established. On the other hand, the existing state universities expanded their portfolios in terms of the number of fields they provide education in.
As a result, the whole system expanded. Today we have a system with a total capacity to enrol about 400,000 students, while the actual number of students is under 200,000. So it’s too big considering the demographics in Bulgaria.
Only 13 out of the 51 universities in the country are private, and only around 11% of students are enrolled in private institutions. So the private sector does exist in Bulgarian higher education, but it’s smaller than, I guess, in Poland.
AU: One of the places where Bulgaria has become a little bit famous in the last couple of decades is its system of university rankings, which is quite unique. It’s not really a commercial undertaking the way you see in the U.S. or the global rankings, because there’s significant government involvement. And uniquely, it actually uses graduate tax data to provide evidence of student outcomes. How did this ranking system come about, and what was the role of your organization, the Open Society Institute, in creating and maintaining it?
GS: Well, there was a tender 15 years ago, and the Ministry of Education commissioned the system. We offered our services as part of a larger consortium and developed the concept for the system, and then we developed the system itself.
The ministry liked it, and the universities started to trust it. So the system has now existed for 15 years. It’s quite trusted and widely used, not only by prospective students but also by institutions.
The system is integrated into the funding formula for the state universities. In Bulgaria, we have a system of performance-based state funding for state-owned universities. If you perform better in the ranking system, you get more money per student, and your quota for state-subsidized places becomes larger. So the system is integrated very well into policymaking in Bulgaria.
And it’s not only rankings. It’s also a kind of information hub for higher education in Bulgaria, providing relevant information beyond the rankings.
AU: That’s fascinating, right? There’s nowhere else in the world where a set of rankings are used both as a consumer choice tool and as a policy instrument. As you say, if it’s integrated into the performance-based funding system, that does require a fair bit of trust.
You have to have policy actors who think this is useful, and I’m really interested to hear you say that the universities themselves trust it. I heard some hesitation in your voice — maybe not 100 percent — but how did you get the universities to trust it? Because generally speaking, universities are the most anti-ranking actors in most systems.
GS: Well, in the predefined rankings we avoid using surveys. We use third-party data and administrative data — so-called objective indicators. The methodology is quite transparent, and it cannot be influenced by subjective factors. So universities started to trust it.
This trust was not present at the beginning, but gradually they saw that the system is fair. We also try to consult the methodology with the universities a lot. Most universities are involved in the development of the methodology, so they have a certain level of ownership of the methodology itself.
AU: But, you do use surveys. It’s just that you only use the surveys in the — what do you call them — the multidimensional rankings, the “choose your own” rankings for students.
GS: Indeed, we do surveys. We survey students, employers, and academic staff. With the exception of indicators related to prestige, the others are not included in the predefined rankings.
AU: Georgi, I want to bring us up to the present day here. There were some really interesting things happening in Bulgarian higher education last year. The first was a fracas about tuition fees. Maybe before I ask you about those events, can you explain something about tuition and affordability in Bulgaria? Are fees very expensive? Do they play a significant part in university financing? And is there a system of student loans and grants to help students offset fees?
GS: In Bulgaria part of the students are enrolled within the state-funded quota. These students pay a small fee — a couple of hundred euros per year. For example, my daughter studies English philology and she pays less than 200 euros per year as an additional fee within the quota.
Universities can also admit and enrol students who are not part of the quota. In order to avoid cross-subsidizing, the law requires that the fees paid by these students — those enrolled outside the state quota — should be equal to, or linked to, the amount of money the state pays per student within the state-funded quota.
AU: Just before you go any further, how many of the 200,000 students are under the quota? How many pay that 200 euros, and how many pay more?
GS: The majority of students are part of the state-funded quota. Only a very small fraction — less than 10 percent — are enrolled outside it.
AU: And do they benefit from any student loans or grants to help them with that?
GS: Student loan schemes are available, but they are not widely used.
AU: So, what happened last September? As you said, it was an issue about their fees being linked to the amount of money the government pays. The government, as I understand it, is spending significantly more per student — maybe because the number of students is going down — and so fees suddenly jumped quite quickly. Is that right?
GS: Exactly. That’s what happened. The government increased the funding for state universities and increased the amount they provide per student. Because of the linkage between government funding and the fees that should be paid by, let’s say, private students, the fees skyrocketed for those students.
So what happened was that Parliament adjusted the law and dealt with the situation. But at some point there was quite a lot of noise about it, and it was an unintended consequence of actually increasing state funding for state universities.
AU: That’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a tuition crisis caused by increasing state funding. So this may also be a first in Bulgaria.
Let me bring you something a little closer to the present. Last December, the national government had to resign because of mass demonstrations in Sofia. As I understand it, students were quite important in the organization of those protests. What happened? And how much were students actually involved in the planning? Was this a situation like Serbia, where it was mostly student-planned, or were students attracted to a movement that was started by someone else?
GS: Like Serbia, these were anti-corruption protests — protests against state capture. And like in Serbia, students and people from Gen Z played an important role. They were probably the most visible and most attractive part of the protests. But these were not student-led protests. They were led and organized by the opposition.
As a result, the government, as you mentioned, resigned. We are going to have snap elections in Bulgaria in two months — actually the eighth snap general election in the country in the last five years. So we are setting a kind of record in that respect.
AU: Why did the protests attract young people in particular? You said it was an anti-corruption movement — how does that affect young people specifically? What’s the driver there?
GS: Look, it’s a million-dollar question, and there are studies now trying to figure it out. But basically, since the protests were organized mostly through social media — TikTok and Instagram — they naturally involved a lot of young people, Gen Z. Some of the faces of the protests were also young people, so I think that played an important role.
AU: Was it actually Gen Z or was it students? Because this is an interesting thing we’re seeing around the world now — in Nepal and Morocco, and a lot of other places — where we talk about Gen Z protests rather than student protests. Were the student unions involved? Was the organized student body part of it?
GS: No, student unions were not directly involved. It was framed more as Gen Z protests rather than student protests, but there were student organizations actively involved and visible during the protests.
AU: Where do you think Bulgarian higher education is heading right now? Is it on an upswing? As you said, there’s more government money coming in, so do things look good for the near future, or is it on a downswing? I infer from something you said that you’ve got a bit of a demographic issue that you’re struggling against. If we come back and do this interview again in 2036, what do you think will have changed in Bulgarian higher education?
GS: There will be fewer institutions, a higher share of foreign students, and a higher share of first-generation students — maybe improved quality as well. But the key word for the next ten years will be consolidation, because we expect a significant drop in the number of Bulgarian students due to demographics.
Birth rates are not good in Bulgaria. In fact, Bulgaria is among the countries with the fastest shrinking populations. Thirty-five years ago there were close to nine million people living in Bulgaria. Currently there are 6.5 million, and the picture is not improving.
AU: Is there a process for consolidation? I’m thinking of a country in a similar situation — South Korea, for example — where they’ve just passed a law to make it easier to close universities, both public and private. Has the debate started in Bulgaria about how to do that?
GS: Yes, there are a number of policies in place, including one called the Map of Higher Education, in which my institution is also involved. This policy tries to regulate the opening of new structures within higher education.
Practically speaking, in Bulgaria if you want to open a new university, a new unit, or expand the number of fields in which your university provides training, you have to meet certain criteria and prove that there is demand for establishing that new structure.
So nowadays it is quite difficult to open any new structure in Bulgaria because of this policy, whose aim is to consolidate the system, which is quite fragmented at the moment.
AU: Georgi, thank you so much for being with us.
GS: Thank you for having me.
AU: It just remains for me to thank our excellent producers, Tiffany MacLennan and Sam Pufek, and you, our readers and listeners, for joining us. If you have any questions or comments about today’s episode, or suggestions for future ones, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at podcast@higheredstrategy.com. Join us next week when our guest will be Saied Gokar, Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. He’ll be joining us to talk about the role of students in recent protests in Iran. Bye for now.
*This podcast transcript was generated using an AI transcription service with limited editing. Please forgive any errors made through this service. Please note, the views and opinions expressed in each episode are those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast host and team, or our sponsors.
