BULGARIA: Students flock to foreign universities

Some 80,000 Bulgarian students currently study abroad, primarily in the European Union, according to data presented at an education forum in Sofia last Monday, reports Novinite.

According to Professor Anna Nedyalkova, President of the Varna Free University and head of the Association of Private Universities in Bulgaria, over 50% of Bulgarian high school seniors who seek higher education apply to schools abroad. In the past three years, the number of Bulgarian students in the UK has tripled.

Bulgaria's Education Minister Sergey Ignatov said Bulgarian universities should be able to open branches abroad in order to attract more foreign students. A total of 10,020 foreign students studied in Bulgaria during the 2010-11 academic year. Most came from Turkey, Greece and Macedonia.
Full report on the Novinite site