The "Kinematograf" Association disseminated a position from the protesting students and teachers from NATFA "Krustyo Sarafov" in connection with the election of Prof. Miroslav Dachev as Chairman of the Management Board of the Association of State Higher Education Institutions. Here is what the association writes:
We learned with serious concern that the rector of NATFA, Corresponding Member Prof. Dr. Miroslav Dachev, has been elected Chairman of the Management Board of the Association of State Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Bulgaria from August 3, 2026, succeeding the current Minister of Education and Science Prof. Dr. Georgi Valchev. When the Association was established on October 17, 2025, the two were elected to its five-member Board of Directors, and Prof. Valchev became its Chairman.
This election cannot be viewed outside the ongoing crisis of confidence in NATFA. Prof. Dachev's management style and the repeatedly demonstrated lack of dialogue, solidarity and tolerance towards students and lecturers raise the legitimate question of how a person who fails to build trust in his own higher education institution receives an even higher national representative function.
Additional concern is raised by the institutional connections surrounding this election.
On July 1, the Board of Directors of the Association of State Higher Education Institutions, of which Prof. Dachev himself is a member, published a position in his support. A few weeks later, the National Trade Union "Higher Education and Science" - CITUB also publicly supported him. One important detail remains in the shadows: the chairman of the VON–KITUB Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lilyana Valcheva is also the chairman of the Board of Trustees of NATFA – and precisely from the quota of the MES.
It is difficult to pass off such an interweaving of roles as a coincidence. When structures that by definition represent different interests in higher education begin to consistently stand behind each other, the legitimate question arises whether we are not observing a system of mutual institutional and public support. Society has the right to receive a clear answer.
Prof. Miroslav Dachev does not have the trust of the protesting students and teachers at NATFA. His election as national representative of state higher education does not solve this crisis – it transfers it to the national level!