The language year for foreign students has started at BFU

For more than 25 years, Burgas Free University has been among the few universities that can, according to the Ordinance on the State Requirements for Admission of Students to Higher Schools of the Republic of Bulgaria, conduct a preparatory year in Bulgarian language for newly admitted foreign students in the country. At the beginning of November, the students who started their training in the new preparatory year and their language and lecturers – Mrs. Mileva and Mrs. Pireva, were officially welcomed by the Rector of the University Prof. Prof. Dr. Milen Baltov, the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Accreditation Mrs. Darina Dimitrova and the employees working with foreign students Vanya Abadzhieva, Martina Shivacheva and Diana Dusheva.

The students were introduced to the traditions of the university and the course of their studies, as well as to other foreign students currently on mobility at BFU under the Erasmus+ program. Each of the students in the preparatory year presented their "business card", which included indicating what is the thing they would take with them again from their country. The smallest country represented was Lithuania, the farthest – the Philippines, and the countries from which the largest number of students were – the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel and Kazakhstan.

Over the past four academic years, the total number of newly admitted foreign students at the university has exceeded twice the values in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic, and the countries from which the applicants are are over 12. The newly admitted foreign students and PhD students in 2024 are more than 70 – distributed in almost all programs, and some of them, when they are in specialties taught in English or have a proven command of the Bulgarian language, enter directly in the first semester of their studies.