Bulgarian students show strong interest in foreign universities
The Bulgarian students are still showing big interest in foreign education. This is so because they have good chances to study modern and promising subjects no matter how much it will cost them, says Irina Hristova, who is a director of the consulting company Integral. The firm has organized the exhibition titled “World education”. The biggest international education exhibition will take place in Sheraton hotel in Sofia on October 6 and October 7. A record number of 60 European top universities will be presented at the event. Over 80 foreign experts will give free advices to the students interested in foreign education. The event aims at supporting the Bulgarian students to take a full advantage of the public funds provided for all people who want to study abroad. Students will receive information about the application procedures and professional help before they make their final choice where to study. Last year only 870 Bulgarians went to study in the UK thanks to the project “World education”. This was over 50% of all students who went to study in universities there. Over 160 of them joined elite universities in Cambridge, Glasgow, Essex, Manchester, Edinborough and others.
The statistics shows that each year between 6000 and 7000 Bulgarians join foreign universities. The most preferred destinations are the UK, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. A presentation of universities from Italy, Spain and Belgium will be made at the exhibition as well. Over 90% of all Bulgarians studying in the UK use students’ loans provided by the Students Loans Company. It is expected that the Bulgarian students will receive some 12 million GBP as students’ loans. In order to compensate the higher fees most of the universities in the UK have implemented annual discounts in the semester fees up to the sum of 300 GBP. According to experts this will of great importance for the decision of the Bulgarian applicants to choose UK universities. Svetlan Denev, who is a coordinator of the project “World Education” tells us more about the most desired by the Bulgarian students majors:
“Information technologies are among the most preferred subjects as we all know that the employees in this sphere are among the best-paid on the labor market. This is a very good profession which gives you the opportunity to work in your country and have a good quality of life. Of course there is interest in subjects such as public administration, economics and others. Recently engineering subjects are gaining huge popularity as well. It was announced last year that Europe will need an extra 700 000 engineers in the next 3 years. Huge interest is shown in arts and design as well.
A research among 2000 students aged 15 to 17, who have already went under various training courses abroad, shows that 60% of them want to study in a foreign university, because they think that the quality of the education there is higher than the one in Bulgaria. 10% of them said that they can afford this. 70% off all students graduating high schools and elite schools of mathematics also state that they would like to continue their education abroad. Usually students from language schools as well as those who study in the big Bulgarian cities join foreign colleges. The biggest obstacle to many students for joining foreign universities is the lack of foreign language knowledge. According to the consultants, the applicants start to prepare in advance for the accession to foreign universities. The first step they usually make is to acquire a language certificate. The right choice of subject is of great importance. During the consultations many parents are interested in the perspectives of the subject their children will eventually choose, says Irina Hristova. The exhibition this year will be held also in the following town: Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse and Burgas.
Text: bnr.bg
Photo: Internet