Improving the performance of university graduates in the labour market, increasing the share of foreign students and increasing the number and impact of scientific publications of Bulgarian universities are the key guidelines in this year’s version of the Rating System of Higher Education Institutions, according to Professor Galin Tsokov, who is responsible for education and science in the country.
He noted that the information in this rating is used to formulate national strategies in the field of higher education.
“During these 13 years, the Rating has been integrated into the overall assessment of the quality of higher education institutions, which plays a key role in their financial aspects. This process represents a significant advance in the approach to the evaluation of Bulgarian higher education, using concrete data and analyses to determine quality,” explained Minister Tsokov.
He stressed that the Rating is of particular importance to prospective students and their parents as it provides information on the positive aspects of different universities. It also demonstrates the importance of higher education in Bulgaria from a labour market perspective.
Are there unemployed graduates?
“The number of unemployed graduates is noticeably decreasing. The rate of successful integration into occupations requiring higher education is increasing. The income of graduates is also increasing, with some professional fields ranging between 4000 and 6000 BGN,” added Professor Tsokov.
“This underlines that higher education in Bulgaria represents an additional value in the professional development of Bulgarian students,” he added.
The specific data in the Rating System clarifies that the percentage of registered unemployed graduates in the country over the last 5 years has remained stable, staying close to last year’s levels, decreasing to just over 2% compared to 3.5% in 2021. Other indicators of the successful integration of graduates into the labour market continue to improve, reaching record highs over the last decade.
The share of graduates not settling in declined from 14% in 2023, down from nearly 17% the previous year and over 25% in 2014.
The share of graduates working in a position requiring a college degree in the first 5 years after graduation increases to over 59% in 2023, up from 54% last year and 46% in 2014. The average taxable income of graduates also rises, reaching over BGN 2 200 in 2023, compared to BGN 1 839 last year and only BGN 980 in 2015.
Among graduates in professional fields such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Military and Mathematics, unemployment is the lowest at less than 1%. The highest unemployment rate, at 3.4%, was recorded among graduates in Social Work.
The highest average taxable income was recorded among graduates of “Computer Science and Information Technology” and “Military” (over BGN 4 000), followed by those who graduated from “Metallurgy”, “Mathematics”, “Exploration, Mining and Mineral Processing”, “Communication and Computer Engineering” and “National Security” (between BGN 3 000 and BGN 4 000).
Does the income depend on the diploma?
At the level of specific higher education institutions, the highest average taxable income is registered among graduates of Informatics and Computer Science at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – BGN 6 469 (compared to BGN 5 592 last year), followed by graduates of the same field at New Bulgarian University – BGN 5 767 (compared to BGN 4 333 last year).
The average grade point average of freshmen in the country as a whole reached 5.08, the highest measured since 2013. In terms of specific higher education institutions, the highest secondary school diploma grade was recorded among freshmen in the Computer Science and Informatics field of Sofia University (5.75), followed by those enrolled in the Public Communications and Information Sciences field of the American University and the Medicine field of the Medical University of Sofia (5.72).
The three professional fields with the largest number of active students in 2023 are Economics with 24,906, Pedagogy (16,900) and Medicine (12,660). The smallest number of students is in the field of “Art Theory” – 48. The largest higher education institution in terms of the number of active students is Sofia University. Kliment Ohridski” with 19 167, followed by Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski” with 16 226 and UNWE with 14 358 students.
Foreign students
Over the last decade, the share of international students in Bulgaria has doubled – from around 4% in 2013 to over 8% of current students in 2023. The share of foreign students is the highest in the fields of Medicine (57% of current students), Dentistry (46%) and Veterinary Medicine (31%). There are 128 joint programmes offered by Bulgarian universities in partnership with foreign educational institutions. In 2023, 2.8% of the active students in the country are studying in such programmes.
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