The UNWE Was Awarded the Academic Oscar for Higher Education Institution with the Highest Institutional Accreditation according to NEAA

The University of National and World Economy was awarded the Academic Oscar for higher education institution with the highest institutional accreditation according to the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency /NEAA/ and the most prestigious higher education institution in the professional field of Economics according to the employers and lecturers in higher education institutions at the ceremony organized by the newspaper 24 Hours.

The Rector of the UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov received the award in the presence of the Prime Minister Acad. Nikolay Denkov, the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Dr. Galin Tsokov, the Minister of Innovation and Growth Milena Stoycheva, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, the Mayor of Sofia city Vasil Terziev, rectors and business representatives.

The award was handled by the CFO of Kaufland Bulgaria Ivan Georgiev, graduate of UNWE, who pointed out: "Our objective in the collaboration with the educational institutions is not to change the educational system or to intervene in the way of teaching and training, we want to be the bridge between the business and the educational system through our example, good practices, know-how, to help the smooth and faster integration of Bulgarian students into the Bulgarian economy. Last year jointly with the UNWE we launched a very successful Business Academy attended by over 30 students which we plan to build up this year with new modules, because we received feedback from the previous participants in which modules we can further develop the programme and not a small part of the participants in this academy are now our colleagues in Kaufland Bulgaria".

The Rector of the UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov expressed his gratitude to the organizers of this event, personally to Mrs. Venelina Gocheva, to the Rating Agency, to Mr. Georgy Stoychev.

"The rating gives a lot of information and we should take advantage of it. It's a great recognition for me and for the University of National and World Economy. I would like to express thankfulness for the institutional accreditation and the recognition of employers. Apart from Kaufland Bulgaria, we have 8 other business academies, we have developed them as an educational innovation with the aim that our students learn business from practitioners." The Rector also expressed his gratitude to the academic members of UNWE who prepare the students and deserve this award. "Thanks also to our students who perform so well in their studies and then in their realization. We do not have a problem with the professional realization of the students, almost 100% of them start working in the field they have graduated. And recently our team in Law ranked 3rd in the world even before Harvard", added Prof. Dimitrov and drew the attention of the audience to the problem with the higher education map. According to him, it is holding back the development of new innovative specialities such as Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security due to the large excess capacity that the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency has been giving out for many years. "As Mr. Georgy Stoychev said, currently only 47% of the places that are accredited in higher education institutions are filled, but if we look at the state order the percentage is over 80. It distorts the situation and makes it difficult to develop new specialities. And for those who wonder when a Bulgarian university will be among the top 10, I will say that the budgets of the top 10 universities in the world start from 1 billion dollars upwards."

Mrs. Venelina Gocheva, publisher and manager of Media Group Bulgaria and initiator of the Academic Oscars, opened the ceremony with the words: "Every year we motivate the Rectors to look for such specialties that are modern and attract Bulgarians to stay in Bulgarian universities, to find such specialties that find the shortest track to the professions that give a decent way of life for young Bulgarians".

"It is the duty of the business to support the universities in Bulgaria as well as the secondary education, because they prepare the future professionals, it is also important for the lecturers to participate in the business", said at the opening Prof. D.Sc./Tech./ Eng Nikolai Valkanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors and owner of Minstroy Holding, Deputy Chairman of Confederation of Employers and Industrialists of Bulgaria /CЕIB/ and Investor of the Year.

The Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov described the event as one of the most useful ones he has attended. "The rating system is one of the best in Europe and in the world. We get not only extremely valuable information for each higher education institution in each professional field but we could also use this information for years to assess the quality, to fund and to redirect the admission so that when the students graduate they will know they have the potential to find professional realization at high positions in their field. But the most important is that we succeed to fill the information gap in a difficult area such as the prospective students, their parents and their friends."

The Prime Minister outlined the work of 24 Hours newspaper to ensure that this information will not remain locked away in folders, but will be delivered in a way that every young person in the country and its parents could understand.

The awards are based on the Rating System of Higher Education Institutions in Bulgaria - an annual ranking organized by the Ministry of Education and Science /MES/ and by a consortium that includes the Open Society Institute and the Sirma Group. The ceremony organized by the newspaper 24 Hours presents the rating system as the most qualitative reference for young people and their parents about the universities and professional fields which give the best chances for young people's realization as well as where to apply with the highest grades from the secondary education; which are the speciaities that guarantee 100% employment immediately after graduation; what is the most profitable to study in Bulgaria.

In his speech Georgy Stoychev from the Open Society Institute outlined three major, sustainable trends that have been registered for 10 years through the Rating System for measuring various aspects of the activity of higher education institutions.

"First of all, we have seen a steady trend of improvement in the labour market realization of graduates, a trend that was interrupted by such negative events as the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Within the last decade, the incomes of young graduates, those who have been in the labor market for 1 to 5 years, have raise more than double. The unemployment among this group of graduates has decrease more than double. The share of young graduates entering the Bulgarian economy is steadily increasing, reaching 86% in 2023. And most importantly, the proportion of graduates who find professional realization at high positions in their filed has increased significantly. Some of the worst news we encountered when the Rating System was implemented for the first time 13 years ago was the fact that less than half of the graduates then were finding professional realization at high positions in their filed. Since then, we have seen a steady increase in that proportion, reaching 60% in the current year, up from 47% a decade ago. This share is even higher for Master degree graduates, where it reaches 70%, which means that every further degree leads to greater realisation", explained Mr. Stoychev.

According to him, another positive trend is the increasing influence of Bulgarians in international competitions. The number of publications that Bulgarian universities have produced in the last 5 years is more than 2 times higher than the publications produced by the universities in the previous 5-year period.

A third positive trend is the increase in the number of foreign students, which demonstrates the ability of Bulgarian education to compete on the European education market. Over the course of the last decade, the share of foreign students has increased from 4 to over 8%. And by this indicator Bulgaria reaches the average level of the European Union. 90% of the foreign students in Bulgaria come from other European countries.

"The biggest challenge is the declining number of students and the big gap that opens between the capacity of higher education and the number of students. The higher education institutions continue to increase. For the last 3 years they have increased by over 11,000 new places which is like having a new University of Veliko Tarnovo. And we also observe that an increasing proportion of the university places stay unfilled. At the moment, only 47% of the places that are accredited in higher education institutions are occupied. We observe that an increasing proportion of the state order places also remain vacant", concluded Mr. Stoychev.

Prof. Dimitrov had discussions with the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Dr. Galin Tsokov, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, the Mayor of Sofia city Vasil Terziev, the new Rector of Sofia University Prof. Dr. Georgy Valchev, Prof. D.Sc./Tech./ Eng Nikolay Valkanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors and owner of Minstroy Holding, the Chairman of the Council of Rectors Acad. Lachezar Traykov and with rectors of other universities.

The ceremony was also attended by the Acting Vice Rector for Institutional and Business Cooperation and Student Policies Prof. Dr. Tsvetana Stoyanova and the Director of the Rector's Office Mrs. Gergana Kirilova.