22.09.2020
In an effort to increase the number of nurses in the country, the "Health Care" direction has become a priority, meaning that universities will receive additional funding for the maintenance of training in this field. There is an influx of applicants for psychology, but for nuclear engineering, however, there are few candidates. Students from 8 more specialties will be exempt from tuition fees,it becomes clear from a draft of changes to the Council of Ministers' decrees in the field of higher education. Among them are African studies and classical philology at SU, nuclear energy at TU-Sofia, metallurgy at HTMU, etc. According to a decree adopted in June this year, candidates for higher education in eight priority professional directions and eight protected specialties will not pay tuition fees for their training from the 2020/21 academic year. This concerns the directions of pedagogy of training, mathematics, physical sciences, chemical sciences, chemical technologies, religion, energy and materials and materials science. The specialties in which students are exempt from tuition fees are Armenian studies and Caucasian studies, Indology, Iranology, Neo-Hellenic philology, Hungarian philology, Romanian philology, Hebraistics and hydraulic engineering. According to the changes proposed by the Ministry of Education and Science a day ago, it is planned to add eight more specialties to them, which are also declared as protected. Among them, for example, is"African Studies" at SU, described as "the only university specialty in Bulgaria, preparing professionally specialized personnel who will participate in the implementation of the foreign policy and foreign economic priorities of our country within the framework of EU policies regarding countries in Africa south of the Sahara". In it, in the 2019/20 academic year, 21 first-year students were admitted. A new protected specialty will also be "Classical Philology", again at SU, which provides teachers of Latin, as well as specialists for cultural institutes (museums, libraries), scientific institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and higher and secondary schools throughout the country, where knowledge of classical languages and knowledge of classical antiquity is required. Protected, and without tuition fees, are also the specialties:"Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Energy" at SU – it is key for the preparation and staffing of the nuclear energy sector, as well as for national security, and "Heat and Nuclear Energy" (bachelor's degree) and "Nuclear Energy" (master's after bachelor's) at the Technical University – Sofia, which are unique in terms of the location of training, with key importance for staffing the nuclear energy sector with engineering personnel, as well as security at national and international levels. At the moment, the number of habilitated teachers, as well as the number of students, is critically small, write the Ministry of Education and Science. In the List of protected specialties, for which students will not pay tuition fees, also included: „"Machines and Apparatus for the Food and Biotechnological Industry" (Bachelor's degree) and "Machines and Apparatus for the Food Industry" (Master's after Bachelor's) at the University of Food Technologies - Plovdiv; "Metallurgy" at the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy; "Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering"at the Technical University – Varna; "Wood Technology and Furniture" at the University of Forestry – Sofia. Protected specialties are those for which there is insufficient student interest, but the training of highly specialized personnel in these areas is of great importance for our economic development. Universities receive additional funding for them; in our country, 13 specialties are protected - 12 of them are in the field of philology and are studied only at Sofia University, and one of them is a technical specialty - "Hydraulic Engineering", which is studied at UASG. To compensate for the costs of exemption from tuition fees, the respective universities will receive for the first semester of 2020/21 37,145 BGN, planned in the budget of the Ministry of Education and Science. For the second semester, the same amount will be planned with the state budget law under the budgets of higher education institutions. PRIORITY With changes in another decree, another professional field is added to the priority professional fields in Bulgarian universities. The list of priority professional fields currently includes 36 fields, among them pedagogy, mathematics, metallurgy, animal husbandry, biotechnology, etc. For them, the state may approve a higher number of students than requested due to the need for such personnel; moreover, they also receive additional funding for the maintenance of education. From now on, the professional field "Health Care" is also added to the list, proposed by the initiative of the Ministry of Health with the aim of guaranteeing more places for state orders in the specialty "Nurse". The motivation for the project states that in terms of availability of medical specialists, Bulgaria still holds positions well above the average for EU countries. "However, the age structure of those working suggests increasing deficits in the future. The regional distribution of medical specialists is disproportionate and unbalanced, which leads to difficult access of the population to health care, worsens the quality of medical assistance and affects the efficiency and results of medical labor", the proposers argue the need for targeted actions for the preparation and retention of a sufficient number of health specialists. ESTIMATES The planned changes will cover 16 state higher education institutions, where an indicative 7,020 students (full-time and part-time) will be trained in the 8 new protected specialties and in the professional field "Health Care", predict the Ministry of Education and Science. According to their estimates, the funds needed for the maintenance of education for these students for the academic year 2020/21 will be 375,000 BGN, which will be provided within the approved expenditure ceiling for state higher education institutions for 2021.
In an effort to increase the number of nurses in the country, the "Health Care" direction has become a priority, meaning that universities will receive additional funding for the maintenance of training in this field. There is an influx of applicants for psychology, but for nuclear engineering, however, there are few candidates. Students from 8 more specialties will be exempt from tuition fees,it becomes clear from a draft of changes to the Council of Ministers' decrees in the field of higher education. Among them are African studies and classical philology at SU, nuclear energy at TU-Sofia, metallurgy at HTMU, etc. According to a decree adopted in June this year, candidates for higher education in eight priority professional directions and eight protected specialties will not pay tuition fees for their training from the 2020/21 academic year. This concerns the directions of pedagogy of training, mathematics, physical sciences, chemical sciences, chemical technologies, religion, energy and materials and materials science. The specialties in which students are exempt from tuition fees are Armenian studies and Caucasian studies, Indology, Iranology, Neo-Hellenic philology, Hungarian philology, Romanian philology, Hebraistics and hydraulic engineering. According to the changes proposed by the Ministry of Education and Science a day ago, it is planned to add eight more specialties to them, which are also declared as protected. Among them, for example, is"African Studies" at SU, described as "the only university specialty in Bulgaria, preparing professionally specialized personnel who will participate in the implementation of the foreign policy and foreign economic priorities of our country within the framework of EU policies regarding countries in Africa south of the Sahara". In it, in the 2019/20 academic year, 21 first-year students were admitted. A new protected specialty will also be "Classical Philology", again at SU, which provides teachers of Latin, as well as specialists for cultural institutes (museums, libraries), scientific institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and higher and secondary schools throughout the country, where knowledge of classical languages and knowledge of classical antiquity is required. Protected, and without tuition fees, are also the specialties:"Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Energy" at SU – it is key for the preparation and staffing of the nuclear energy sector, as well as for national security, and "Heat and Nuclear Energy" (bachelor's degree) and "Nuclear Energy" (master's after bachelor's) at the Technical University – Sofia, which are unique in terms of the location of training, with key importance for staffing the nuclear energy sector with engineering personnel, as well as security at national and international levels. At the moment, the number of habilitated teachers, as well as the number of students, is critically small, write the Ministry of Education and Science. In the List of protected specialties, for which students will not pay tuition fees, also included: „"Machines and Apparatus for the Food and Biotechnological Industry" (Bachelor's degree) and "Machines and Apparatus for the Food Industry" (Master's after Bachelor's) at the University of Food Technologies - Plovdiv; "Metallurgy" at the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy; "Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering"at the Technical University – Varna; "Wood Technology and Furniture" at the University of Forestry – Sofia. Protected specialties are those for which there is insufficient student interest, but the training of highly specialized personnel in these areas is of great importance for our economic development. Universities receive additional funding for them; in our country, 13 specialties are protected - 12 of them are in the field of philology and are studied only at Sofia University, and one of them is a technical specialty - "Hydraulic Engineering", which is studied at UASG. To compensate for the costs of exemption from tuition fees, the respective universities will receive for the first semester of 2020/21 37,145 BGN, planned in the budget of the Ministry of Education and Science. For the second semester, the same amount will be planned with the state budget law under the budgets of higher education institutions. PRIORITY With changes in another decree, another professional field is added to the priority professional fields in Bulgarian universities. The list of priority professional fields currently includes 36 fields, among them pedagogy, mathematics, metallurgy, animal husbandry, biotechnology, etc. For them, the state may approve a higher number of students than requested due to the need for such personnel; moreover, they also receive additional funding for the maintenance of education. From now on, the professional field "Health Care" is also added to the list, proposed by the initiative of the Ministry of Health with the aim of guaranteeing more places for state orders in the specialty "Nurse". The motivation for the project states that in terms of availability of medical specialists, Bulgaria still holds positions well above the average for EU countries. "However, the age structure of those working suggests increasing deficits in the future. The regional distribution of medical specialists is disproportionate and unbalanced, which leads to difficult access of the population to health care, worsens the quality of medical assistance and affects the efficiency and results of medical labor", the proposers argue the need for targeted actions for the preparation and retention of a sufficient number of health specialists. ESTIMATES The planned changes will cover 16 state higher education institutions, where an indicative 7,020 students (full-time and part-time) will be trained in the 8 new protected specialties and in the professional field "Health Care", predict the Ministry of Education and Science. According to their estimates, the funds needed for the maintenance of education for these students for the academic year 2020/21 will be 375,000 BGN, which will be provided within the approved expenditure ceiling for state higher education institutions for 2021.
