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BULGARIA |
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BULGARIA |
INSTITUTIONAL SETTING
Fifteen academic degree programmes in public administration are currently operating in Bulgaria, excluding the attempt to create a PA undergraduate programme at the American University in Bulgaria, which has been postponed.
The information was gathered in February and March of 1999 and represents the state of PA education in Bulgaria before the creation of the latest state requirements for that discipline, published in June 1999 in the State Gazette. The new state requirements will require changes in all curricula in as a condition of accreditation from 2000.
Bourgas Free University, Bourgas
Bourgas Free University, a private university founded in 1993, will offer a PA programme through the law faculty. The programme is currently being institutionalised, and it has not yet enrolled students, although a specialisation in PA is already part of the education in law.
Dimitar Tzenov Economics Academy
The Economics Academy is a state institution of higher education, established in 1936 and offering a BA programme in public administration and an MA programme in the management of territorial systems in the Faculty of Management and Marketing. The PA programme, therefore, coexists with marketing and planning, economic informatics, international economic relations, business administration and ecological management. The BA programme was opened in academic year 1993/94 as a programme in Administrative Management of Territorial Systems, and it was re-named Public Administration in 1998. At that time, its curriculum was altered as a result of the state requirements for PA education being issued in 1997. The MA programme has remained unchanged as its students come from the older incarnation of the BA programme. It is likely to be altered within three years, when the first BA graduates will enroll at the master’s level.
Gabrovo Technical University, Gabrovo
Gavbrovo Technical University, a state university established in 1954, offers a BA programme in public administration, which is housed in the engineering and business faculty, together with programmes in industrial management, commerce and marketing, finance and banking, and enterpreneurship and management. The programme was initiated under the auspices of a TEMPUS project that involved an institute in Ludwigsburg, Germany, and Leuvarden, the Netherlands, and primarily focuses on training local administration.
New Bulgarian University, Sofia
NBU, a private university founded in 1990, initiated a programme in State Administration (which will be re-named Public Administration in the near future), housed in the Master’s Faculty. As a result, the PA programme coexists with all MA programmes offered at this university. New Bulgarian University also established a four-year BA in 1994. The MPA programme was created with the assistance of Prof. Randall Baker of Indiana University. This PA school enrolls ninety to one hundred students per year.
The master’s programme was designed to offer fundamental insight into basic constituent elements of public administration and is also flexible enough to satisfy specific interests through elective courses. The programme length depends on the background of individual students but normally entails four-semesters of study. For students who lack experience in administration, an internship of two hundred and forty hours is required. The choice of institutions where interns are placed depends on the area of executive administration in which students will work in the future. Candidates must have a higher education degree and solid language skills in other major European languages in order to manage specialised literature and understand foreign guest lecturers. Approximately twenty-five students are admitted per year.
The BA programme is clearly interdisciplinary, with emphasis placed on economics, law, political issues, history, sociology and related subjects. Information technologies and psychology are considered vital parts of the programme. Students enjoy greater academic freedom and choice than in other institutions. After the third year, when students have reached their “qualification level,” they are able to pursue two semesters of a specialisation in one of the following areas: State and Local Administration, Administration of Defence and Security, or Administration of Arts and Culture.
Students who have no administrative experience are required to work at least one hundred and sixty hours in an administrative structure. Candidates must have secondary education and successfully complete a complex test and an interview with the director of qualifications.
Rousse University Angel Kanchev, Rousse
Rousse University, a state university opened in 1954, offers a programme in administrative management, which is housed in the Faculty of Business and Management, together with industrial management, agrarian management, business management, marketing and European studies. The authorities of this faculty declined to cooperate with the SOCRATES project and did not provide any information.
Slavic University, Sofia
The Slavic University opened in 1995 and closed in June 1999, although some students continued their education in other universities. Those individuals who did not pass admissions exams for other institutions lost their student status. The programme in administrative management was based in the Faculty of Management, and thus existed in tandem with two other disciplines: business management and management of non-profit social organisations.
Southwestern University Neofit Rilski, Blagoevgrad
Southwestern University, a state institution founded in 1983, offers a public administration programme housed in the Faculty of Law. This discipline was created in 1998 after two others, Public and Business Administration and Taxation Administration, merged. The programme offers a five-year joint BA-MA programme (respectively four plus one years of study) and offers a master’s in public and business administration. Students who wish to exit the programme after completing the basic four-year undergraduate course acquire the title of “Expert of Taxation Administration.” Students are offered a legal degree as a second discipline taught parallel to PA. The programme enrolls sixty students per year.
University of National and World Economy, Sofia
A state university established in 1951, the University of National and World Economy offers a joint BA-MA programme in public administration, and the department of PA is housed in the Faculty of Economics of the Infrastructure. It was established as a PA programme with its own curriculum and department in 1997, at the same time when the programme and department were founded at Sofia University. However, this new UNWE programme emerged from another opened in 1994, Economics and Management of Territorial Systems. The PA programme coexists in the faculty with transportation economics, economics of communication and economics of cultural activities. Approximately seventy BA and fifteen MA students are enrolled per year.
UNWE offers separate BA and MA diplomas. In accordance with the Bulgarian State Standards of Higher Education, the BA programme lasts four years, and the MA course consists of three semesters (one and a half years). The BA curriculum is divided into two main sub-levels. The first consists of subjects required by the state standards for compulsory PA courses and is considered a foundation. This section lasts two academic years. Following that, students pursue specialisation courses for two additional years. During this period, students are required to take twelve obligatory courses and can chose from two modules, Higher Administration and Local Administration, each consisting of six obligatory courses. Elective courses are offered as well.
The MPA programme separated from the undergraduate programme in 1998. Its curriculum currently consists of five obligatory courses and three of four courses offered in one of two modules.
University of Plovdiv Paissi Hilendarski, Plovdiv
Plovdiv University, a state university established in 1961, offers programmes in Administrative and Health Management and the Management of Culture in the Faculty of Pedagogy. They are, thus, in one group with different pedagogic disciplines. These are part-time programmes open only for college graduates.
The public administration programme, founded in 1999, is housed in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and offers an MPA curricula operated in collaboration with Sofia University’s MPA programme under the terms of a joint TEMPUS-JEP project. The programme is in one group with macroeconomics, marketing and management, sociology and political science, and international economic relations. The programme follows a curriculum similar to the MPA programme of Sofia University, but it also includes key courses from the list of compulsory subjects of the Ministry of Education. This is required in order to meet the state requirements for PA (see Annexes 1 and 2) as Plovdiv University still does not have an undergraduate PA in which these requirements could be fulfilled. Therefore, the course of study lasts three semesters instead of two as in Sofia University. It will expand its activities to the city of Haskovo, where this faculty established a branch, in the near future.
University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia
Sofia University, a state institution founded in 1888, has placed the Department of Public Administration in the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences. As a result, the PA programmes exist together with sociology, philosophy, political science, cultural science, psychology, European studies and the School of Library Sciences.
This is a full programme according to Bulgarian higher education law, consisting of a four-year undergraduate programme, an autonomous one-year master’s programme and a three-year PhD programme. The academic degrees offered are the Baccalaureate in PA (BPA), the Master’s of PA (MPA) and the Doctorate (PhD). Approximately ninety students are admitted annually to the BA level and about fifteen to the MPA programme.
The MPA programme is the result of a TEMPUS-JEP project involving four European universities (Limerick, Ireland; Umea, Sweden; Bologna, Italy; and Maastricht, the Netherlands), and the curriculum was developed in cooperation with these universities. It is open to students who have graduated from a baccalaureate programme in any other discipline, including the department’s BA programme in public administration. The BA programme was established in 1997, and the MPA programme started in 1998.
In addition, the Faculty of Law offers a specialisation in public administration. It does not have its own specific programme structure. This is a regular legal programme (the faculty offers two disciplines, law and international relations) where additional elective courses are offered each year to broaden the education of students pursuing the governance specialisation. However, this specialisation does not end with a degree in PA, and graduates receive the regular Master’s of Law degree. The PA specialisation was first offered in 1992.
Varna Free University, Varna
A private university founded in 1991, Varna Free University offers a BA programme in administration in the Faculty of Administration, Political Science and International Relations. It is a four-year undergraduate programme for full-time students or can be completed over five years by part-time students. Over one hundred students are admitted each year, the largest number of students admitted to any single PA programme in Bulgaria.
Varna Technical University, Varna
Varna Technical University’s Faculty of Law has offered a joint BA and MA programme in public administration since 1998. The programme coexists with the disciplines of law and engineering pedagogy and offers a master’s degree entitled “Administrator.”
The Centre for Public Administration is an autonomous branch of the Varna Technical University in the city of Sliven. This programme was opened in 1994 before it became a branch of Varna University. The Council of Minister’s Centre of Administration created it as an educational/training branch. Unfortunately, this institution’s director declined to share the curriculum and participate in this report. According to indirect information, different modules are offered and certificates are issued. The basic course of studies is a four-year BA programme in public administration, and three master’s programmes are offered in public administration, finance and budgeting of local powers, and entrepreneurship and management. The centre also provides programmes for retraining practitioners in the field of administration. The BA curriculum of the public administration programmes: (1) contains a considerable number of courses related to law and state and national security; (2) meets the state requirements for academic programmes in PA; and (3) has educated police officers for the last several years in accordance with an agreement with the Ministry of the Interior.
Other Institutions Offering PA Programmes
The master’s degree programme in public administration at the Centre for Administration of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria is also significant. The curriculum of this MPA programme was developed in 1994, although the programme does not meet the definition outlined in the guidelines for this report and will, therefore, not be discussed further.
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