STAFF

Professor Dr.Sc. Hristo Kuyumdzhiev - Director, Professor in Strength of Materials, University SOCRATES/ERASMUS Manager and Coordinator
MSc Todorka Todorova - Chief Consultant, MSc in Tourist Economy
Milena Bogdanova - Inspector of Socrates/Erasmus Programme
Address: 8, Studentska Street; 7017 Ruse, Bulgaria, tel/fax: +359 82 451 092
E-mail: cicm@uni-ruse.bg
 
     

     The University of Ruse is one of the reputable Bulgarian universities, enjoying acknowledgment in Bulgaria and abroad. It trains 7558 national students and  53 overseas students at 8 basic and 1 functional faculties, and at 2 colleges, managed by 622 highly qualified lecturers, including 231 professors and associate professors, and 242 DSc- and PhD-degree scientists.

     An evidence for the international acknowledgment of the quality of education and of the University research investigations is its very active participation in international collaboration. The University of Ruse develops its international cooperation by:

1. Participation in the scientific EC programmes: COPERNICUS, PECO, INCO-COPERNICUS, FIFTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME

2. Partipations in the academic programmes TEMPUS, CEEPUS, SOCRATES / ERASMUS , LEONARDO DA VINCI and

3. Participation in the bilateral collaboration with traditional and new partners.

Since 1993 the University of Ruse has taken or is taking part in the implementation of  9 research projects, financed in the frames of the quoted above programs of the EC (Table1).

Participation in Scientific Projects

Table 1

     From the given information it is obvious that these projects involve teams of lecturers of the basic University faculties, namely: Automotive, Mechanical & Manufacturing, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation, Pedagogics.

     Table 2 gives some Individual Research Projects financed by various International programmes, that have been carried out or are under the implementation by University academic staff members.

Participation in Individual Research Projects

Table 2

     The TEMPUS programme stands clearly in the University international activities. Since its establishment our university has participated in the implementation of 26  Joint Projects, 3 CME projects and in more than 30 Individual projects.

     According to the aims and objectives of the TEMPUS Programme, the basic participants in the mobilities are lecturers. Parallel to this, the international students' exchange is also developed. The number of the students that have carried out their training at European partner universities for 1-2 semesters is the following:

     1991/92 - 2; 1992/93 - 4; 1993/94 -14; 1994/95 - 25; 1995/96 - 6; 1996/97 - 18; 1997/98-6. The total number of students trained at European universities within the TEMPUS programme is 75.

     At present our University implements 11 JEPS. According to their subject they can be divided into four groups:

1. Projects, dedicated to the restructuring of the training process in Engineering : 11027-96 and 12417-97 (Table 3);

2. Projects, dedicated to the process of teaching updating in: Computing; Electronics and Communications: 11392-96 and 12456-97 (Table 4);

3. Projects, dedicated to support the University management and the University entry to the EU SOCRATES PROGRAMME: 12126 - 97; 12473 - 97 (Table 5) and

4. Projects, dedicated to  improving of the Institutional Building: 13054 - 98; 13220 - 98, 13506 - 98, 13561 - 98 and 14350 - 99(Table 6).

Acting TEMPUS projects, dedicated to the restructuring
of training in Engineering

Table 3

Acting TEMPUS projects, dedicated to updating the training in: Computing; Electronics and Communications

Table 4

Acting TEMPUS Projects dedicated to  support the University  management
and the University entry to the EU SOCRATES Programme

Table 5

Acting TEMPUS Projects dedicated to improving of the Instituonal Building

Table 6

Table 7 gives the TEMPUS SJEPs and CME projects that have already been successfully carried out and terminated with the participation of the University of Ruse.
 

Previous TEMPUS Participation 

Table 7

Current projects under the LEONARDO DA VINCI Programme

Table 8

The collaboration within the CEEPUS programme (Table 9) is carried out by the participation of the University of Ruse in the project PL-13, coordinated by Assoc.Prof. PhD Boris Tomov. The project involves exchange of lecturers, PhD-students and students among the partner universities from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Its successful implementation leads to the extension of its duration for the 1999/2000 Academic year with the involvement of new partner universities from the former socialist countries from Central and Eastern Europe and Austria. The number of the students that have carried their training at the partner universities within the frame of CEEPUS PL-13 is the following: 1996/97 - 3; 1997/98 - 8.

Current projects under the CEEPUS Programme

Table 9

Table 10 gives two projects, supporting the education in Business, Management and European Studies. The latter aims at creating a Business Centre for Firms Development in Ruse together with the Chambers of Industry and Commerce of Ruse and of the Central Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Projects under other European Programmes

Table 10

     The bilateral collaboration of the University of Ruse is carried out by the implementation of 40 contracts, including universities from Belorussia, Germany, Greece, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Romania.

     The University of Ruse strengthens its activities in attracting foreign guest-lecturers. Besides those attracted within various projects, for the last 4 Academic years total of 7 lecturers have been recruited from America, Russia and Greece.

     The fellowships realized by our lecturers at foreign partner universities of the University of Ruse are numerous, and their number for one academic year is about 200.
 

     The tendency in the development of the international collaboration of the University of Ruse has been defined in the Mandate Programme of the University Governing Body, later specified in the Strategy for the Development of International Collaboration. It outlines clearly the basic strategic objective for the further development of the international collaboration, namely:

     "To unite the physical, mental, organizational and financial potential of the University of Ruse, strengthening the existing and developing new training and research directions, thus reaching European standards of teaching; by using the international exchange of experience, by collaboration and integration, to further develop the infrastructure and to intensify the economical and cultural relations of the University with international structures and organizations".

     In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to organize the future development of the activities in international collaboration in the following basic directions:

1. International scientific and technical collaboration, financed by the European programmes COST, PECO, INCO-COPERNICUS and others. Participation in other international research and applied business projects.

2. International collaboration in the field of education, financed by the European programmes TEMPUS, SOCRATES/ERASMUS, LEONARDO DA VINCI and others for achieving of European standards in education and for academic recognition of training and diplomas.

3. International collaboration based on bilateral contracts for direct collaboration with international scientific organizations and universities, including traditional and new partners.

4. Collaboration within the CEEPUS programme and other programmes for currency-free exchange.

5. Collaboration with international structures and organizations as DAAD, the British Council, Foundations, Associations, Firms etc.

6. Organizing of international events with the institutional participation of the University of Ruse.

7. Establishing and strengthening of the public relations of the University International Relations Department with local and national structural bodies as: regional government, municipality, ministries, embassies, banks, firms etc.

The University of Ruse was one of the eight Bulgarian Universities entering successfully the first session of the SOCRAT/ERASMUS Programme in Bulgaria for the academic year 1999/2000. The financed within the Institutional Contract OMS and TS activities with nine European partner universities, support and further develop the European Policy of the University of Ruse on one hand, and on the other they implement the University Strategy of Development. The Contract is oriented to three groups of academic units. One group gathers structural units, needing further development by studying the experience of their Europena colleagues (The Faculty of Business and Management). The second concerns the Agricultural Faculty, demanding internal restructuring, hence the exchange of experience is of vital importance. The third corresponds to the biggets University Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation.   

The contacts and the relations with the Ministry of Science and Education and those with the Bulgarian TEMPUS Office are considered to be very useful. Decided by the Ministry of Education and Science, the National TEMPUS Agency and others, the University of Ruse has been regularly selected to be the host of Regional Seminars in international collaboration. The assistance of the regional Government and that of the Municipality are also considerable. The listed above results and the established mutual trust among the University partners both in the country and abroad, is a good guarantee for the further extension of the fruitful international collaboration.