A number of policies are being implemented to link admissions and financing of the higher education system to the needs of the labor market and the future needs of society. This was stated at a briefing at the Council of Ministers by the outgoing Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev.
"The demand for education sometimes diverges from the needs of the labor market. That is why we are increasing admissions in some professional fields, and in others - reducing them. We are increasing admissions in professional fields with an expected future shortage in the labor market. These are primarily engineering and technical and natural sciences. We also have an insufficient number of students in agricultural and humanities. We are defining the so-called priority professional fields, in which we additionally stimulate admissions with scholarships. We also have protected specialties: those that are unique in content and are offered training in a university. They are additionally funded to remain as centers of training, since we need them. We exempt from fees those specialties and professional areas with the greatest expected future shortage in the labor market. Today, we are supplementing these policies with several regulatory acts that we have changed. We have added to the list of protected specialties “Italian Philology”, “Conducting of folk ensembles”, “Conducting of folk choir”, “Conducting of folk theater” and the entire professional field "Metallurgy", he said.
"So far, only the specialty "Metallurgy" was protected and exempted from fees, but in the professional field itself, in the educational and qualification degree Master, we have other specialties. All students in this professional field will be exempted from this. There are approximately 180 of them. At the same time, the sector "Metallurgy" is one of the largest in Bulgaria. It forms nearly 9 per 100 of the gross added value in the country. Such protected specialties so far are other rare philologies such as “Arabic Studies”, “Armenian Studies”, “Japanese Studies”, “African Studies”, “Indology”, “Iranian Studies”, Romanian, Greek and Portuguese Philology. These are all specialties in which there is an insufficient number of students. We must preserve them. Last year, 2 specialties were added to this list: nursing and midwifery. The shortage of nurses is one of the most significant problems in healthcare and it threatens the functioning of the healthcare system. We need 3 times more students to graduate in the specialty “Nursing”. Last year we achieved a 36% increase in admissions for the specialty," added Valchev.
"Admission to the professional field “Economics” and the professional field “Administration and Management” should be tied to mathematics, with 20% of it tied to the DZI in “Mathematics” and/or a unified exam in mathematics, which will be organized by the state higher education institutions that provide training in these professional fields. The goal is to motivate more students to apply to “Economics” with “Mathematics”. Mathematical skills are key for economic higher education. The second is that for technical professional fields, admission should be tied to “Mathematics”, “Physics” or “Chemistry&rdquo. This could again be with the DZI or with a unified exam organized by the higher education institutions themselves," the minister also said.
“Regarding higher education in the professional field of “Medicine”, what we did last year was to tie part of the admission to contracts for implementation in Bulgarian medical institutions”, said Valchev and expressed hope that this policy would be continued by the next minister.
“The problems with the demand for higher education are rooted in the school education system and, above all, with the demotivation to study “Mathematics” and “Natural Sciences”, he pointed out.