 |
BULGARIA |
|
BULGARIA |
RELATION WITH THE PROFESSION
As almost all PA schools in Bulgaria were founded recently (most in academic year 1997/1998), there are presently no graduates. Furthermore, Bulgarian universities do not have alumni associations or similar organisations to facilitate tracing the achievements of alumni. New Bulgarian University, the Economics Academy in Svishtov and the Centre for PA in Sliven are rare exceptions of educational/training institutions with graduates, as they opened in the mid 1990s. The University of National and World Economy also offered a PA-related programme prior to 1998.
Faculty members of these institutions reported that most Bulgarian graduates from PA or PA-related programmes (approximately sixty individuals at present) opened private firms during or after their studies and started working as entrepreneurs and businessmen. A considerable number of graduates joined the tax administration in the country, and fewer began working for local labour bureaus. Some found jobs in banks and municipalities, but their number is low. In rare cases, PA graduates became political analysts, journalists or political campaign workers. The Centre for Public Administration in Sliven has special agreements with local law-enforcement officials and, therefore, its graduates tend to pursue careers in law enforcement.
As a rule, central and local administration positions are most often occupied on a partisan level (administrative jobs for party supporters) and, thus, are occupied by political science graduates (political science departments were founded in the early 1990s in Bulgaria and have several years of graduates). Therefore, it would be improper to generalise at this early stage that Bulgarian PA graduates have little access to jobs in local or state administration.
None of the universities, including those that had PA programmes before academic year 1997/98, have attempted to modify public service hiring policies in Bulgaria. However, Prime Minister Kostov gathered one hundred and twenty young people in early 1999, including some graduates of PA-related programmes and of political science programmes, and promised that most would find jobs at the state level of administration. Interestingly, many of these students were from the New Bulgarian University, which is politically close to the current Bulgarian government. The Bulgarian government strictly follows an administrative reform plan that includes re-invigorating the old administration with young reformers, which may lead to more administrative jobs being offered to PA graduates in the near future.
In this context, some activities of New Bulgarian University could serve as good examples for the remaining universities. NBU’s PA programme has introduced a system of keeping information about graduates in personal dossiers. These dossiers contain students’ documents and written academic work from throughout their studies. The dossiers are made available to various institutions in order to help them chose the most appropriate graduates for employment opportunities. At NBU, students also have two substantial internships: one hundred and sixty hours at the bachelor’s level and two hundred and forty hours at the master’s level. These are considered as important links between the programme and professional practice. Graduates from NBU have already started working in important spheres of the administration in Bulgaria, such as the administration of parliament, the Council of Ministers, in municipalities, etc.
The same government policy, however, prevents it from using research services from academic institutions. As far as such research is used at all, it is in the area of educational administration reform. The government has few advisors, hires consulting institutions in the sphere of administration (e.g., Strategma) and relies entirely on such experts rather than academies. This is partly the result of the political situation in the country and partly due to the underdevelopment of academic research on PA.
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ] [ Part 4 ] [ Part 5 ] [ Part 6 ] [ Part 7 ] [ Part 8 ] [ Part 9 ] [ Annexes ]
