site.btaMinimum Monthly Wage for Assistant Professors at State-run Universities Increased by 10.5% to BGN 2,780

The minimum monthly wage for assistant professors at state-run institutions of higher education in Bulgaria has been increased by 10.5% to BGN 2,780, the Ministry of Education and Science reported on Wednesday. Assistant professor is the lowest academic rank in Bulgaria.

Higher pay rates for academic staff at state-run university-level institutions were agreed earlier in the day between Education and Science Minister Krasimir Valchev and the two nationally representative trade unions in higher education.

Employees assisting research and creative activities at higher education institutions will receive BGN 2,223 per month if they have higher education and BGN 1,780 per month if they have secondary education. Up until now, the two groups have been paid, respectively, BGN 2,013 and BGN 1,610.

To fund the agreed pay rise, the government decreed an increase in student upkeep rates and in assessment standards for academic performance and career prospects.

Wednesday’s pay boost will help achieve the goal of bringing up the average gross wage of academic staff in state-run higher education institutions to at least 180% of the average gross wage in Bulgaria, as envisioned in the Higher Education Act.

The trade unions were represented at the meeting by Lilyana Valcheva, head of the National Union for Higher Education and Science at the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, and Valeri Apostolov, who chairs the Higher Education Union at the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour.