site.btaMedical University Pleven Opens Academic Year with 600 Freshmen, Launches Veterinary Faculty

The 2025/26 academic year opened officially on Tuesday at Medical University Pleven, which welcomed 600 first-year students. The ceremony was attended by members of the university leadership, including Honorary Rector Grigor Gorchev, faculty and guests.

The University's Rector, Prof. Dobromir Dimitrov, emphasized the innovative approach of the university, which introduced robotic surgery in Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe.

Prof. Dimitrov noted that this academic year as many as 114 students have been admitted to the Nursing programme, after the Nursing and Midwifery programmes were exempted from tuition fees and became more attractive to young people. He hopes this trend will continue and the numbers will increase every year.

The Rector noted that after completing the first four semesters of the hybrid Telemedicine programme at the University of Telecommunications and Post in Sofia, students will, for the first time, continue their studies at Medical University Pleven.

Marking a historic milestone for the university, with a legacy spanning more than 50 years, the new Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has opened its doors to 40 students. The Rector noted that this will help to address the staffing shortage of veterinarians in Northern Bulgaria over the next few years.

Later in the day, the Dr. Edward Haskell Training Facility was inaugurated in Pordim (near Pleven) as part of the University's new Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The Rector called September 9 "a historic day for Pordim, Bulgaria's smallest university town".  

Veterinary students will have access to modern lecture halls and laboratories, and the Pordim training facility will house Bulgaria's first virtual dissection table for animal anatomy. Training will be divided between the Pordim complex and the university in Pleven. A large animal clinic - the largest in Bulgaria - will be established in Pordim, while Pleven will have a new building, designed for the needs of veterinary medical education, complete with an administrative section, a library, laboratory facilities, and a small animal clinic.

Pordim Mayor Detelin Vasilev highlighted the town's educational history, noting that Dr. Edward Haskell's village university laid the foundation for other schools in the municipality. "The town and region will be transformed for the next century," he added.

In the 2024/25 academic year, 16,995 foreign students, including from EU Member States, enrolled in Bulgarian universities. The largest number of international students came from Greece (3,277), the United Kingdom (2,235), Ukraine (2,151), Germany (1,532) and Italy (990).

A growing number of international students and doctoral candidates, including from Western Europe, are choosing to study in Bulgaria, with 779 additional enrolments in 2024/25 compared with the previous academic year.

BTA has signed indefinite agreements for ongoing collaboration with 45 of Bulgaria's 51 universities to provide copyright-cleared materials and student internship opportunities.