site.bta190,000-Plus Study in Bulgarian Universities, as Economics and Pedagogy Draw Highest Interest

Around 190,000 students are studying in Bulgaria, enrolled in 51 higher education institutions, Georgi Stoychev, Open Society Institute - Sofia Executive Director and head of the team preparing Education Ministry's Bulgarian University Ranking System, told BTA. Of these, 38 are state universities, and the rest are private higher education institutions.

Compared to last year, the number of students in Bulgaria is slightly higher in the current academic year. Ten years ago, the number of students in Bulgaria exceeded 200,000, but it has fallen for demographic reasons to the present 190,000, Stoychev explained.

“Birth rates in the country increased until 2008–2009 and then began to decline sharply,” Stoychev said. According to him, it can be expected that the number of students in Bulgaria will continue to grow slightly for demographic reasons until 2028, as a result of this demographic bonus related to those born between 2002 and 2008, after which it will begin to fall sharply.

Over the past decade, the share of foreign students in Bulgaria has more than doubled - from around 4% in 2013 to nearly 9% of enrolled students in 2025. For another consecutive year, the share of foreign students is highest in the fields of “Medicine” (59% of enrolled students), “Dental Medicine” (48%) and “Veterinary Medicine” (33%). In five more professional fields, foreign students exceed 10% of the number of enrolled students. These are “Pharmacy” (16%), “Tourism” (14%), “Transport, Shipping and Aviation” (12%), “Musical and Dance Arts” (12%) and “Theory and Management of Education” (11%).

The four professional fields with the largest number of students in 2025 are: “Economics” (26,996), “Pedagogy” (16,713), “Medicine” (13,485) and “Administration and Management” (11,773). The fewest students are enrolled in the field “Theory of the Arts” - 53.

The lowest unemployment rate (below 1%) is observed among graduates of the professional fields “Military Science”, “Medicine”, “Pharmacy”, “Metallurgy” and “Dental Medicine”, while the highest is among graduates of “Social Work” (3.88%).

The highest rate of application of acquired higher education (over 90%) is observed among graduates of “Military Science”, “Medicine”, “Theory and Management of Education” and “Dental Medicine”, while the lowest is among graduates of “Tourism” (25%).