The state completely overturns the balance of its relations with higher schools with the adoption of the new methodology for the distribution of the state subsidy for the support of university education. According to it, eighteen of them should find a way to allocate funds for rewards in a strictly defined amount, but without ensuring sufficient funding. This is clear from an expert analysis of the effects of a decree of the Council of Ministers, adopted on the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Culture last week. It was prepared by a team led by Dr. Antonia Yaneva and Dr. Raya Dragoeva.
„Behind the complex formula that the department uses to distribute the money between the 32 higher education institutions it affects, there are many imperfections or biased components that lead to such an unacceptable result” – educational experts point out.
„There are no uniform rules for all professional fields, very frankly adjusted parameters are used, the effect of certain indicators is duplicated and many other components show that there is no attempt to create a uniform and consistent system to rank individual universities according to their real achievements and merits, and according to some other unannounced criterion”, is the opinion of Dr. Yaneva and Dr. Dragoeva.
The rules for fixing the salaries of the academic staff were adopted at the proposal of Krasimir Valchev in cooperation with the trade union structures at the KNSB in February of this year and further developed the idea of fixing the minimum salary for assistants, introduced again during his administration as a minister in 2020. This completely changed the "contractor-executor" principle, which had been operating until that moment in the higher education system. The financial insecurity of the measures related to the provision of wages by the state deformed the budgets of the universities and was the reason for the formation of extraordinary budget financing, carried out according to hitherto unestablished rules.
„It is clear from our analysis that the legally defined salaries in these 18 higher schools can only be reached as a result of dismissal of academic staff and closure of specialties, departments and faculties. Moreover, the agreements offered to the rectors for additional funding to compensate for the shortfall are legally problematic, because the Act on Higher Education does not provide for a similar administrative instrument.“ - is the conclusion of the authors.