Share of Foreign Students in Bulgaria Doubles in Last 10 Years

Jerusalem, 14 November, 2022 (TPS) -- SOFIA, 14.11.2022 13:36 (BTA)
Over the last ten years, the share of foreign students in Bulgaria has doubled, exceeding 8% in 2022 from some 4% back in 2013. This transpired at a presentation of the latest edition of the rating system of higher education establishments in Bulgaria, elaborated for the Ministry of Education and Science by Open Society Institute and Sirma Solutions.

The head of the team updating the data in the rating system, Open Society Institute Executive Director Georgi Stoychev, said that in 2022 the share of foreign students is the highest in the fields of medicine (59%), dental medicine (46%), and veterinary medicine (31%). Bulgaria has the highest share in the EU of foreign students studying medicine, he added.

Foreign students are more than 10% of those studying education theory and management (16%), pharmaceutics (13%), transport, navigation and aviation (12%), and music and dance art (11%).

Nearly 13% of students in Bulgaria are enrolled in private higher education establishments, the biggest share of them studying theatre and film art (over 69%), art theory (54%), fine arts (nearly 43%), and administration and management (close to 42%).

The 2022 edition of the rating system shows four ongoing positive trends in Bulgarian higher education and one negative trend that has been reversed, Stoychev also said. The positive trends are: greater success of graduates on the job market; higher number and greater impact of scientific publications by scientists in Bulgarian universities; increase in the share of foreign students; and rise in the number of students in joint programs between Bulgarian higher education establishments and foreign educational institutions.

The downward trend in the number of university students observed in the last ten years, has been reversed. This number exceeded 260,000 back in 2010 to drop below 200,000 in 2020, but last year for the first time in this decade the number of students grew. It was over 200,000 both in 2021 and 2022, Stoychev specified.

He added that this number is expected to continue growing in the next seven years as a result of the many children born between 2002 and 2008.