Universities and fiction – the rating system of Bulgarian higher education institutions

It's mid-January and the results of the university rankings are already out. While prospective students and their parents wait for the overloaded server to load where it would be best to enroll in the fall (in case they stay in Bulgaria), here we will offer them an alternative view of the ranking itself - to what extent it manages to objectively evaluate universities and whether we need it at all.

The methodology for this year's study will not undergo fundamental changes (we have already written about it) - the evaluation criteria have been increased to 62, distributed in six groups: educational process, provision of the educational process, socio-living conditions, prestige and realization. To compile the ratings, "information from higher education institutions, centralized registers, international databases, as well as a survey of the opinions of students, employers, lecturers and employees in higher education institutions was used."

Among the innovations promised by the Ministry of Education will be the opportunity for prospective students "to choose from nearly 70 indicators by which to compare higher education institutions", a new platform on the website, as well as "information on the most frequently practiced professions by graduates of professional fields and higher education institutions." The evaluation of educational institutions is co-financed by the ODA "Human Resources Development".

As last year, we will consider the professional field of Administration and Management [1]. This is the field taught in the largest number of universities – 32. The site’s platform gives us a choice between: comprehensive assessment [2], science and research, prestige and realization. Let’s consider what should be most important for every applicant – realization.

The criteria according to which it is assessed to what extent acquiring a diploma from a specific university contributes to successful implementation in the labor market and their weight are illustrated in Table 1.

Table 1: Weight of criteria in determining implementation after university graduation

Source: http://rsvu.mon.bg/

That is, whether a graduate student is realized in the labor market after 4 years of study forms an extremely small share of the university's assessment. In the overall assessment, the share of this indicator is even smaller – only 7%. This presents the real realization as a less important factor than the assessment of the central state assessment body NEAA (National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation), for example. In other words, for the evaluators it is more important what the bureaucrats think about the university than whether it will be realized at all – i.e. than whether it makes sense to study at this university at all if you are going to work in your specialty.

But can those interested understand what the realization is after graduating from a specific specialty at a specific educational institution? The index of application of acquired higher education reports: "(p)rcentage of insured persons who graduated from the professional field in Bulgarian higher education institutions in the last 5 years, working in a position requiring higher education ...." That is, prospective students cannot understand whether if they graduate from Business Administration at University X they have a chance to realize themselves as managers and whether University X gives them a greater opportunity than University Y.

There are other important points when interpreting the results for realization. When calculating employment after graduation, bachelors and masters who graduated from a Bulgarian university but then started working outside Bulgaria are not included. This somewhat renders the indicator of foreign students meaningless. In addition, it hides the demand for Bulgarian bachelors and masters abroad.

The indicator of unemployment among graduates is also interesting. It takes into account “… officially registered unemployed among graduates of the professional field in Bulgarian higher education institutions in the previous 5 years …” But hardly every graduate who cannot find a job would register with the Labor Bureau, given the significantly more adequate channels for searching for a job on the Internet. In addition, there is a significant chance that the newly appointed graduate will start working in the so-called “grey economy” – i.e. not register. It is possible that after completing his higher education, he will leave the country and register as “unemployed” elsewhere, in which case he will again not be listed as “unemployed” in the ranking. The conclusion is that individuals using the guidance platform will not be able to rely on accurate data.

The ineffective assessment of the implementation is also accompanied by obvious inconsistencies. For example, if someone decides to inquire about which is the best-equipped higher education institution for the field of “Administration and Management”, they will see that it is … the National Military University “Vasil Levski” in Veliko Tarnovo. The Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sofia University and Sofia Technical University follow. This information is due to the methodology used. The definition of “equipment” is: “(c)he accounting value of the computers, hardware equipment, other machines, facilities, cars and means of transport of the higher education institution per student…” Bearing this in mind, it is completely normal for “Vasil Levski” to be the “best” equipped higher education institution for management – after all, unlike almost all other educational institutions in the country, it has its own tank track, artillery range, tactical and shooting ranges, airport and motor track, as well as corresponding equipment. The compilers of the rating system clearly did not take into account that ownership of ATGMs and air defense systems could hardly be of benefit to management students.

Although, due to the nature of the information analyzed in the rating system, prospective students cannot learn much about their potential realization after graduating from university, it can still show the differences between public and private higher education in Bulgaria.

If we return to the example of the material base, the students' assessment significantly differs from that of the experts who prepared the ranking. There are now only three state universities in the top ten. Students at private universities rate the institutions higher than their counterparts at state ones for things such as the distribution of classes (category: academic schedule ), the availability of modern literature (category: assessment of the library collection ), fair and clear assessment criteria (category: assessment ), etc.

The ranking system of higher education institutions in Bulgaria is a tool that is not able to adequately guide prospective students. What it does show is well known even without it – namely, that state universities offer lower-quality education than private ones. In other words, the platform is simply a waste of taxpayers' money.

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