The tension in higher education in our country was artificially created a few days before the new academic year, and the dispute over the legitimacy of the Council of Rectors is entirely political in nature.
This was stated by the legal advisor of the organization, lawyer Kalin Kostov, on the air of the program “Offensive with Lyubo Ognyanov“ on NOVA NEWS.
According to him, attempts to create an alternative structure have no legal basis, since there is a single and legitimate registration of the current legal entity.
Kostov pointed out as an example of artificial imbalances in the system the disparities in agricultural sciences and the higher tuition fees at the Agricultural University in Plovdiv compared to competitors.
Additional tension in the sector is created by the delayed procedures for issuing student visas for foreigners, which threaten the international competitiveness of Bulgarian universities.
„The people who directly named the essence of the problem and absolutely correctly directed the conversation were Academician Nikolay Denkov and Professor Daniel Valchev, who stated that in fact the problem is neither legal nor personal. And when it is not legal and personal, it is solely political“, he commented.
According to him, the issue of funding is also relevant to the conflict, but it is not about the funds available to the Council of Rectors itself. “The membership fee of a university per year is 511 euros, which for a university of the size of Sofia University and the UNWE is simply a nominal amount“, the lawyer pointed out.
According to him, the more important question is where the boundary between the powers of the state and academic autonomy should be drawn. “Will the state pull the trigger towards greater centralization, or will the universities retain greater independence and autonomy”, Kostov specified.
He defined the issue of the division between universities as a complex one, since the dispute is precisely about the legitimacy and identity of the Council of Rectors: “It has existed for 33 years and currently the claim is emerging that almost its entire existence up to this point has been illegitimate and it must be re-established“. Kostov pointed out that medical universities support the traditional Council of Rectors, while among the universities associated with the initiative to restore the organization are Sofia University, UNWE, NATFA and other higher education institutions. However, he stressed that it is not useful to divide universities into camps.
Kostov also commented on the distribution of funds for higher education institutions, indicating that a significant amount was directed to a limited number of universities. “They were distributed to 10 higher education institutions, and for all the others there was one big zero“, he said.
According to him, the problem is also related to the way in which the different directions in higher education are financed. “When you promise in the strategy for the development of higher education two equal tracks for the development of universities - everyone to run in the track in which they are strongest, it is very unpleasant for one track to be overfunded, and for the other to have no funds allocated“, the lawyer pointed out.
Kostov also emphasized the amount of student fees in some professional directions. As an example, he cited agricultural sciences. “The tuition fees for agricultural sciences at the Agrarian University in Plovdiv, which is the leading university in this professional field, are actually higher than those of its competitors in the Czech Republic and Spain“, he said.
According to him, this puts Bulgarian universities at a disadvantage in the European education market. “Education in Europe is already an open market. At the moment when our thinking in Bulgaria has become accustomed to the overregulation that the state refuses to give up, we are no longer competitive in this market“, Kostov commented.
Another problem that, according to Kostov, hinders the attraction of foreign students is the slow visa issuance procedure. For some countries, it can last between nine months and a year. “You understand that with such a period we cannot be competitive with other countries, where this process is very fast“, he said.
According to him, education is now not only a value, but also an economic factor. “In the 21st century, education, in addition to a value, such as we know it from our childhood and from history before that, is also a business that supports the development of personnel and the economy with added value“, said Kostov.