UNWE Is the Only Bulgarian Economic University in the Prestigious QS World University Rankings

UNWE is one of the four Bulgarian universities and the only economic university among them listed in the prestigious QS World University Rankings of European universities. In addition, our university has improved by 21 places moving up from the 101^st place valid for 2024 to 80^th place valid for 2025 among the 133 Eastern European universities eligible for the QS World University Rankings - Eastern Europe 2025.

There are more than 5 000 universities in Europe but only 684 of them have met the criteria for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings - Europe 2025. The UNWE is one of them moving up from 601^st place valid for 2024 to 551^st place valid for 2025 together with three other native universities - St. Climent Ohridsky University of Sofia, Plovdiv University and Thracian University.

QS World University Rankings evaluates universities on the basis of six criteria: academic reputation, research reputation, employer reputation, student-lecturer ratio, citations per lecturer, number of international students and number of international lecturers.

Our university has been participating in the ranking since 2024 and it is the consecutive recognition for the University because in the current year the UNWE obtained the highest score of 9.80 among all Bulgarian universities from the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation /NAEA/ - the most important certificate for the quality of education in the respective higher education institution. For a consecutive year our university was also awarded the Academic Oscar. The rating system for higher education institutions describes the UNWE as the "higher education institution with the highest institutional accreditation according to the NAEA and the most prestigious higher education institution in the professional field of Economics according to employers and lecturers in higher education institutions".

"These achievements as well as our rise in the prestigious QS World University Rankings are not only an assessment of the educational process, but also an assessment of everything the institution itself provides from the beginning of the education to graduation", says the Rector of the UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov. "I am extremely contented with the results achieved through the joint efforts of all lecturers and employees. They are also an important part of my management concept. The consolidation of the high level of UNWE in Bulgaria and the active development of the level in a global environment, the dynamic adaptation of the research activity to the measurement and evaluation systems at national and international level and the transformation of UNWE into a leading partner of the business community in the field of science for business and good governance are evident in the excellent implementation so I would like to express my gratitude to all colleagues because without their support this would not be possible", adds Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov.

QS World University Rankings is a portfolio of comparative university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a university analysis company. The first and earliest edition was published in partnership with Times Higher Education (THE) magazine under the name Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, which was launched in 2004 to provide an independent source of comparative data on university performance. In 2009 the two organizations parted ways to create independent university rankings, the QS World University Rankings and THE World University Rankings.

In 2022 QS launched the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability and in 2023 - the QS World University Rankings: Europe. The rankings are intended to reflect and articulate the performance of universities for the next academic year. Therefore, they are usually named for the year following the year in which they are produced. The rankings are considered one of the most widely read university rankings in the world, alongside the Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. According to Alexa Internet, it is the most viewed university ranking worldwide.