Plamen Slavov - University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev” – BRIE, BG-RO

The Bulgarian-Romanian Interuniversity Europe Centre (BRIE) at the University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev” offers joint master programmes for international students which are admitted upon recognition of prior educational attainments.

The Interuniversity Centre submitted an application under b-solutions in order to receive consultancy by a legal expert, as incongruences in the legal framework of the two countries have affected negatively the students’ enrolment.

The obstacle originates, in particular, from diverging standards introduced by the Bologna process within the national laws. As a consequence, students in possession of a Romanian degree are denied access to the courses provided by the Bulgarian-Romanian Interuniversity Europe Centre (BRIE) as their prior education does not match the Bulgarian standards.

Plamen Slavov, the expert hired in the framework of the initiative, suggests different solutions to overcome the hurdle and provide full accessibility to the master course:

• the introduction by the Bulgarian-Romanian Interuniversity Europe Centre (BRIE) of an additional and compensatory training activity during the master’s course for student in possess of a Romanian degree in order to fulfill the admission requirements;
• the amendment of the Bulgarian Higher Education Act, which currently allow students to apply only to master courses in the same academic field of their bachelor’s degree;
• a broader interpretation of indications included in the Bulgarian Higher Education Act, assuming its provisions only as a guarantee that all master level graduates meet the standard of at least 5 years of study, independently from their prior educational attainments.

Plamen Slavov’s full report is available here for a more in-depth reading of the field analysis of the “Bulgarian-Romanian Institutional Cooperation Constraint” case.

The information here provided have been developed in the framework of b-solutions, an initiative of the European Comission’s DG REGIO managed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR).

The reports here included are the result of a consultation provided by legal/cross-border cooperation experts on obstacles of a legal or administrative nature - referred to as Advice Cases - selected in the framework of the II Call for Proposals of the initiative b-solutions.