Sofia University celebrates 135th anniversary

The 135th anniversary of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" was celebrated with a solemn concert in “Bulgaria” Hall on October 3.

Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Plamen Dzhurov, performed in front of the audience. The celebration of the oldest and largest university in Bulgaria was also honoured by Vice President Iliana Iotova.

"The most important task of the university is to create active and honest citizens, seeking personalities who are not afraid to ask questions and defend their opinions, but also to show understanding, respect and tolerance for the opinions of others. I often say that the university is not a place for politics, but it is the best place for discussion and policy making," explained Prof. Anastas Gerdzhikov, Rector of Sofia University.

"Over the years, since its establishment, it has turned into a special haven. A refuge of free thought, of freedom that is not chained, a refuge for all those rebels who do not want to think in uniforms and do not want to have uniform thought. A refuge for all those who are alien to indifference and cowardice, to empty words," said Iliana Iotova, Vice President of Bulgaria.

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Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" marked its 135th anniversary this year with celebrations on October 2 and 3.

The academic year started on October 2 with a festive procession of students and lecturers, which started from the Rector’s Office and reached the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The Rector of the University Anastas Gerdzhikov delivered a speech.

"I deeply believe that in the next five years Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" will enter the group of the first 500 universities in at least one of the three major international rankings", he said.

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The alma mater is the oldest Bulgarian university, opened in 1888 when only 15% of Bulgarians were literate. Seven professors, graduates and doctors of prestigious universities in Leipzig, Geneva, Vienna, Jena and Paris, started working at the university at that time. This became possible thanks to the donors Hristo and Evlogy Georgiev, who donated a space of 10,200 square metres and 6,800,000 gold leva for the construction of a building and the maintenance of the university, the Rector recalled.

He stressed that today Sofia University is the largest and most prestigious research university in the country, comprising 16 faculties and three departments, museums, the second largest library after the National Library, hundreds of laboratories, centres and units. The famous alumni of the University are many - from Yordan Yovkov and Dimcho Debelyanov, to Tsvetan Todorov, Boris Hristov and the Presidents Stoyanov and Parvanov.

“Honorary Doctors of the university are personalities such as Ivan Vazov, Nikola Tesla, Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie, Dmitry Likhachev, Umberto Eco, Paul Ricœur, Jacques Derrida, Patriarch Neophyte, politicians such as Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev, and several Nobel laureates," said prof. Gerdzhikov.

"We are constantly updating our curricula and programmes, entering into partnerships with business, other universities and scientific organisations. Hundreds of thousands of graduates are educated at Sofia University, nearly 20,000 are educated there today," the Rector said.

Prof. Anastas Gerdzhikov called for a return to the reform in higher education, implemented for more than 10 years, before it was brought to a halt, in the past 5 years.

Gerdzhikov said that the university had sent a letter with several demands to Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov:

"One of them is related to Sofia University with a building that was taken away from us three times really, really unfairly. We do not want money. We want a fair distribution of the subsidy, les red tape for foreign students. This is not about ultimatums. We want some very reasonable things, trade union demands that we support. They are for serous amount of money to be envisaged in budget 2024. According to regulations, there should be an annual increase of 20% in higher education funding, in general, and that should be the case for every year. It is written down and we should not have to ask for it," Gerdzhikov said.