site.btaParliament Adopts at First Reading Two Bills Related to Higher Education

Parliament adopted on Wednesday at first reading two bills amending the Higher Education Act.

A bill amending the Higher Education Act, sponsored by Andrey Chorbanov from There Is Such a People and a group of MPs, introduces a simplified procedure for closure of higher education institutions that do not carry out educational processes. This will protect the reputation of the system, as well as the interests and rights of students, who will be directed to other institutions offering quality education, the sponsor said. The procedure cannot be abused because the closure is on a proposal by the Council of Ministers, but sanctioned by the National Assembly.

A second bill, sponsored again by Andrey Chorbanov and a group of MPs, amending the Higher Education Act, provides for the abolition of an existing restriction to provide funds from the state budget for subsidizing  the education of students and doctoral students in the priority professional fields and protected specialties in state higher education institutions. This will reduce costs for the families of students and postgraduates who wish to retrain. Employers also have an interest in increasing the number of personnel in priority sectors of the economy.

Education Minister Krassimir Valchev said that the ministry supports both bills. At the moment, he noted, there is no legal possibility to close a higher education institution that does not implement a sustainable educational process. He acknowledged a quantitative and structural problem in terms of education-workforce demand. The quantitative one is with 100 people entering retirement age, on average there are only 60 young people replacing them in their profession. The Minister noted that the most painful is the shortage of technical personnel. For example, for 100 engineers retiring, only 45 are replacing them, for 100 nurses only 40 and for 100 hydraulic engineers only 10 are replacing them. According to  Valchev, other tools must be used to encourage demand. If until now a very large part of people have practiced one profession during their working life, today's children and students will probably change professions three times, a large part of professions will disappear, which will require a permanent retraining, the Education Minister said.