The Rector Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov about the High Tuition Fees: We Wait for the Law to be Passed to Know How to Respond. I Liked the Quick Response by Minister Krasimir Valchev

The Rector Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov in the weekly review on Radio Focus - Metronome, authored by Tsonya Sabcheva,

discusses the cost of living for students, the increase in tuition fees, and how this issue is being solved at the UNWE.

Good afternoon, Prof. Dimitrov. Unconsidered actions by politicians and administrators, which resulted in changes to the Higher Education Act, as well as a decision by the Council of Ministers on the amount of financial support for the state-funded students, caused confusion in the midst of the university prospective student campaign and led to protests in front of Veliko Tarnovo University and St. St. Cyril and Methodius University of Sofia. On the one hand, the increase in fees is inevitable and will happen, but on the other hand, how should it look? How is this issue being solved at the UNWE? Why there have been no dramas or protests at your university about fees for the state-funded students or paid education?

All that happened was done with good intentions. And indeed, there was some confusion. I wouldn't call it a mess or chaos or anything like that – the good intentions prevail.

This year, in many professional fields of Bulgarian education, the coefficients, the base coefficients for the basic subsidy, were increased. To give you an idea, the base subsidy is 900 and a few leva, but in most areas there are different coefficients depending on whether you need laboratories, testing grounds, expensive equipment, or something else. For Economics it was 1.15, and in the last 2-3 years it became 1.6 or 1.65, I can't remember exactly, then 2, and now this basic subsidy is multiplied by 3. The idea behind tuition fees is that they should not fall below the subsidy that the state gives for a student, i.e., there is no dumping of these services, because in previous years there were some state universities that really announced very low fees, which affected the private universities, because when you have a state order, you can accept additional students, but not at a very low price.

On the one hand, it is good that the state increased the subsidy - both the subsidy itself and the coefficients were increased. Apart from that, the better universities, some of which you mention, including the UNWE, have another coefficient by which this basic subsidy is multiplied, multiplied by two or three, and then multiplied by a quality coefficient. The better universities have quality coefficients of 2.5 or 3 or 4, and suddenly the subsidy that a university receives for the maintenance of a state-funded student instead of 1 000 BGN becomes 4 000-5 000 BGN, or even more, depending on the specialty; in some fields, it is multiplied by 7 or 8. And suddenly it turns out that, according to the formulas that have been adopted, the tuition fee cannot be lower than the subsidy provided by the state, and that is why this is the case with physics and chemistry - very expensive fields - but also with law and other fields, which shows that the good intentions do not always work out. But I liked the quick response of Minister Krasimir Valchev, the Ministry of Education, and the Education Commission, who quickly took measures to resolve this issue in some way. Because this makes tuition fees unaffordable, and there have to be such a channel for further education.

There is something else I have to emphasize, and why it did not happen at the UNWE and some other universities. We traditionally announce the fees in the spring, but all these decisions about numbers, subsidies, and coefficients, for many reasons that happen in the country – lack of budget or late adopted budget, or these decrees come out late – come out in June or even July, as happened now. The university cannot run a prospective student campaign saying "But we don't know what our fees are and what will happen". And suddenly, when these things happen and they are already real, they are included in the budget, suddenly we cannot tell the students: "We told you the fee was 1 500 BGN, now it's 5 000 BGN," or to those who have been accepted for paid education to suddenly triple their fees. In other words, the system needs further adjustment, but again, to conclude this long tirade, the good intentions prevail.

All right, Prof. Dimitrov, so how can be raised the tuition fees, which obviously have to be done, but in such a way that they do not exceed the financial capabilities of Bulgarian applicants for undergraduate and Doctoral students, as well as those from abroad, who will simply ignore us as an educational destination if the fees are so high?

That`s right and that`s I appeal to all interested parties, as there are steps in this direction by the Council of Rectors, the National Representation of Student Councils, and Minister Krasimir Valchev, to consider the tuition fees as marginal costs or additional costs. In other words, when you have a group of 20-30 state-funded students, you can accept a few more fee-paying students, but not at the subsidy rate that the state has provided, which is already quite good and commendable. There is nothing wrong with that. But it prevents access for people who were once funded by the state for their education and will then be unable to pay their fees.

So, the idea is that the tuition fee should be a percentage of the subsidy - not less, so as not to fall back into dumping, and then there won't be such sharp jumps for those who have already been accepted - the fees won't increase so quickly. We held various discussions in different formats. It is better for these things to happen in the autumn, last autumn, so that in March-April the universities already know their subsidies, fees, and how to respond. But you know when the current government was formed and when the state adopted the budget. So there are reasonable grounds for this, but it really has to be thought carefully, because you mentioned the foreign students. If we apply this formula, they really won't come. We will become completely uncompetitive. I'm not talking about Medicine now, but I feel that there is tension there too, because the fees rise so much that people will prefer to go elsewhere. Medicine is a very universal specialty that is always in demand.

We at the UNWE make great efforts to attract foreign students, signing agreements with universities in China, India, and Uzbekistan, so that these efforts are not undermined simply because of high fees. The approach should not be entirely market-oriented, but should also take into account the social cost of these fees.

How does the prospective student campaign go at the UNWE, Prof. Dimitrov? What will be the admission rate at your university this year?

It's going very well. I look at the memories on Facebook. For several years we have been posting information there every year – 5, 6, 7 thousand prospective students. Now we already have 8 thousand prospective students. For 4 500 - 5 000 places at the University around 2 000 and a few people had registered for the first round of admissions on Friday, which is very good.

We will probably have problems and questions too. We are waiting for the law to be passed, because these are just ideas that have been formulated – a 60% or 20% increase in fees. Let's the law pass and we will see how we will response at the UNWE. Because there was a call from the Minister Krasimir Valchev and other people in education system not to collect the high fees, but to wait for the law to be passed. So we will wait a little too. But again, everything must be within reasonable limits so that we do not fail our campaign, and that of other universities.

UNWE is also part of the ENGAGE.EU consortium – a network of nine leading European business universities. How will Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone affect its presence in this consortium? As a key Bulgarian university, what do you expect after the adoption of the euro?

Many things can be said – regarding the increased control of banks, trust, low interest rates - as positive developments. You can see the increase in the country's credit rating, and some companies have started to receive loans on much more favorable terms. The benefits began to appear even before our admission to the eurozone. But if we look at it from above – purely, outside of specific economic terminology – this means strong Europeanization. Our integration, we can say, is almost completed in the European Union and our admission into a family, which is the family of the eurozone. I know there are voices against it - sovereignty, keeping the Bulgarian lev, and other things of a kind - but when you are part of a large family, it is much easier to help each other if necessary. And we are indeed part of a large and prestigious family. Comparisons become much easier, for example, when it comes to fees. Even now, there is a problem between the nine participating universities – some are private, some are state-owned, some have no fees, others do. So this will clear up any mistrust – Bulgaria wants to join the eurozone, but if it is not accepted, there is something wrong. Our acceptance into the eurozone means, as it once did, a seal of quality, it means that we have fulfilled and meet all the criteria – Maastricht, political, technical and economic. These are the major advantages that will be felt. We will not exchange currencies, we will not think about how much something costs in Bulgaria, how much it costs in Germany or France, but we will think in euros. Apart from that, our economy has long been euroized – many transactions have been conducted in euros for many years – for housing, cars and many other things, which allows for comparability of the various goods and services that exist within the eurozone.

Thank you for your time and for being our guest!

Thank you to you too!