The Governing Board of the Council of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions has issued a “Call for Academic Unity“ in connection with the so-called schism. It came about after the rector of NATFA, Prof. Miroslav Dachev, challenged the legitimacy of the body and, together with 14 other rectors, left the Council. Here is what the call says (without editorial intervention):
For more than three decades, the Council of Rectors has been the place where Bulgarian universities, regardless of their differences, have sought common solutions on the most important issues of higher education. It is precisely the ability to talk to each other and stand up for common causes that has turned the Council of Rectors into an authoritative representative of the academic community and one of the symbols of the democratic development of Bulgarian higher education.
Only two months ago, none of the rectors questioned the constitutionality, legitimacy and representativeness of the Council of Rectors. During all these years, it was undoubtedly recognized as the general representative body of Bulgarian higher education institutions before state institutions, society and international academic partners. It is also important to note that a significant number of colleagues who are today proposing the creation of a new Council of Rectors have been an integral part of its management or candidates for positions in its management bodies over the years. This in itself shows that only two months ago they accepted its statute, legitimacy, representativeness and institutional authority.
Today we are sincerely concerned about the public positions and actions that may lead to division through the existence in the legal world of two organizations bearing the same name - the Rectors' Council.
Up until now, the Governing Board of the Rectors' Council has consciously maintained academic silence. Not because it lacks a position, but because we believed that differences should be discussed and overcome within the organization, with mutual respect between its members and without public confrontation. We were guided by the conviction that the Rectors' Council is the common home of all rectors and that differences should be overcome through academic dialogue, not through division.
Many times we have already witnessed divisions in political parties, synods, sports federations and professional organizations. Such conflicts never end with a winner. They only lead to public distrust and weakening of institutions.
We believe that through dialogue, agreement can be sought on any controversial issue, with the exception of one - questioning the legal legitimacy, institutional identity and continuity of the Council of Rectors, established in 1993.
We express our sincere gratitude to the doyen rectors who laid the foundations of the Council of Rectors at the beginning of democratic changes in Bulgaria. We thank them for the efforts with which they built an organization that has defended the interests of Bulgarian higher education institutions for more than three decades. We sincerely hope that their work will not remain just a worthy page in history, but will continue to be the basis for the future development of the academic community.
The efforts of the generations of rectors before us, who laid its foundations at the beginning of democracy, are legitimate. The efforts of the thousands of professors who have supported its development over the years are legitimate. It is also our legitimate responsibility today to prevent the destruction of the unified voice of the Bulgarian academic community.
No one will benefit from the existence of two Rectors' Councils. The universities will lose. The students will lose. The society, which needs a unified, independent and authoritative academic voice, will lose.
The risk would be even more serious if the representation of the universities were reduced solely to an advisory function to the executive branch.
We recall that the Association of Private Higher Education Schools, the Association of Medical Universities and the Association of State Higher Education Schools are an important part of the academic community and perform significant functions, but they represent separate groups of higher education schools. Only the Rectors' Council has united all Bulgarian higher education schools for more than three decades and represents their common interest.
Unfortunately, today's academic conversation is increasingly less and less dedicated to the real challenges facing higher education - the quality of education, the development of scientific research, demographic processes, internationalization, digital transformation, the competitiveness of universities and Bulgaria's place in the European Higher Education Area. Instead, the Council of Rectors is gradually being drawn into a crisis of human relations, not of academic ideas. This is not the conversation that Bulgarian higher education deserves.
Therefore, we invite all our fellow rectors to sit together at a round table and hold an open, honest and responsible conversation through which we can find a solution within the framework of the existing Council of Rectors. The organization bequeathed by our predecessors cannot be held hostage to personal ideas, temporary conflicts or private interests.
We call on all rectors to preserve the unity of the academic community. Differences are natural and inevitable, but their place is in dialogue, not in division. We believe that a solution exists and can only be found through mutual respect, open conversation and decisions made within the Council of Rectors.
The unity of the Council of Rectors is not an end in itself. It is a condition for Bulgarian universities to continue to have a strong, independent and respected common voice before the state, society and international academic partners. We extend a hand for academic dialogue and remain hopeful that our colleagues will take it up!
Board of the Council of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Bulgaria