In the city of Burgas, hosted by the Burgas State University “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov” at the University’s College of Tourism, the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency held a roundtable to discuss the development of the higher education quality assurance system in Bulgaria. Within the framework of the roundtable, the Agency presented an analysis of the applied accreditation methodology. Proposals related to its improvement were discussed.

Guests at the forum included representatives of the academic leadership of Burgas State University and other higher education institutions in Bulgaria, as well as faculty members.

Prof. Eliza Stefanova, President of the NEAA, greeted the participants in the event: „The idea behind today’s round table is that in this discussion we should all be on equal footing. Everyone should have the floor and share their impressions of the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology for evaluating higher education institutions in Bulgaria. At our previous meetings, we reached a consensus that this methodology indeed needs improvement. What I urge you to do is not simply share the problems you have identified in this regard, but to propose concrete solutions to them“, she said.

“I greet you with a warm “welcome” to the grounds of our beautiful university and city. We are open to supporting national institutions. Today’s event is of exceptional importance, as it will address the methodologies and criteria for evaluating all higher education institutions in the country. I am proud that Prof. Stefanova accepted our invitation for us to host this forum”, said Prof. Sotir Sotirov, Rector of Burgas State University.

The main topics in the discussion were introduced by experts from the Agency: Prof. Albena Chavdarova, Chairperson of the NEAA working group on improvements to the data-based methodology for accreditation of higher education institutions in Bulgaria; Assoc. Prof. Maria Kehayova-Stoycheva – member of the Accreditation Council of the NEAA; and Asya Stoyanova – Director of the „Evaluation, Accreditation and Post-Accreditation Monitoring and Control” directorate of the NEAA.

The forum at Burgas State University was part of a series of events with NEAA participation between 10 and 12 September in the seaside city. On the first day, they visited Burgas Free University together with experts from the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), in connection with the procedure for evaluating NEAA according to the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). On the following day, NEAA initiated a scientific session entitled Data-driven Quality Management and Intelligent Systems for Academic Processes and Flexible Decision-Making, which was part of the 16th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, organized by Burgas State University and the Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.