site.btaStudents Demand Higher Scholarships and Fair Elections

Representatives of the STOP student initiative called for higher academic scholarships, fair elections with machine voting, and amendments to the Election Code at a press conference in Sofia on Wednesday. The topic of the public discussion was Stop and Restart of the State and Higher Education.

The students reviewed their participation in the protests held on December 1 and 10 in Sofia. Georgi Petkov said the demonstrations had shown that young people are not apathetic about developments in the country. He noted that dissatisfaction with the way Bulgaria is governed has accumulated over many years and stressed that, despite the success achieved, complacency must be avoided. Petkov emphasized that the initiative is non-partisan and distances itself from any party influence.

The students called for scholarships awarded from a grade point average of 5.00 (in the Bulgarian educational system, Excellent 6.00 is the highest possible school mark) to be linked to the minimum poverty threshold, and for the maximum student scholarship to be tied to the minimum wage. They also demanded the abolition of unpaid internships, describing it as unacceptable in a European country to expect students to work full time without remuneration. Among their proposed education policies is the introduction of mandatory internships from the second year of study for many degree programmes, guaranteed by universities, which would encourage closer cooperation between higher education institutions, businesses and public authorities, Petkov added.

One of the key problems, according to the students, is the low level of scholarships, which forces students to work during their studies. Martin Filipov said that scholarships should serve as an instrument for students’ financial independence.

The initiative supports machine voting, advocating a system with dual verification through both machines and printed ballots. Under their proposal, the machine would print a ballot placed in the ballot box while simultaneously counting the vote. Galimir Kostadinov argued that the mixed system of paper ballots and machines complicates the process, makes it slower and more expensive, while machine voting would reduce the number of invalid ballots. He also pointed to discrepancies between population registers maintained by the Civil Registration and Administrative Services General Directorate of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the National Statistical Institute, calling for the voter lists to be updated to reflect real electoral participation.

"We want to be students, not workers," Ivan Koprivchin said, insisting on higher scholarships and support for all higher education institutions. He added that the students will submit their demands in letters to all institutions, noting that January 10 is a reasonable deadline for their fulfillment.