VARNA UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT

Varna University of Management (VUM) was founded in 1992 under the name Bulgarian-Dutch Institute of Management and following a pilot project for the establishment of a private higher school in tourism supported by the Dutch Government. In 1999 the institution was awarded its first accreditation as a higher school under the name International College (IC). International University College (IUC) became the first Bulgarian HEI with educational programs entirely taught in English. In 2009, IUC concluded a strategic partnership with Cardiff MET University by which bachelor and master programs for double degree diplomas were introduced. With a decision of the National Assembly as of 21.05.2015(SG 38), IUC is transformed into Higher School of Management, which is known in the public environment with its business name Varna University of Management (VUM).

VUM specialises in Social Sciences and offers study programs in Business, Management, Administration and Tourism. It also provides innovative education in Culinary Arts and Hospitality as well as in Software Engineering. VUM’s main achievements are related to research and project development targeting alternative tourism, culinary arts, hospitality management, sustainable development and utilisation of IT and new technologies in the areas of tourism, services and education.

VUM’s capacity has quadrupled during the last years, which is primarily attributable to the increasing popularity of the institution, its highly skilled lecturers, the unmatched level of practical education and the rapidly growing number of international students and professors. Today, more than 800 students (10% of which come from >50 countries around the world) study at VUM on interdisciplinary BA and MBA programs in modernly equipped campuses in Varna, Dobrich and Sofia.

VUM has also created a VET centre, which main mission is to support the modernisation of the vocational education and training in Bulgaria, as well as to promote and strengthen the connection between the labour market and the lifelong learning.

I. Administrative Capacity

- VUM has established and maintains an active network of >120 partner universities from >50 countries on five continents including Europe, Asia, South and North America, Africa.

Due to the numerous mobilities financed and realised on Erasmus+ in the last years, U-Multirank ranked VUM first in the criteria international orientation and student mobility - VUM actively communicates, has signed framework agreements for cooperation and receives regular feedback from over 50 business organisations at the national level and participates in 5 national clusters - VUM was selected by the Ministry of Economy of Bulgaria to organise and manage one of the four inter-university entrepreneurship centres in Bulgaria, aimed to improve the entrepreneurial culture of university graduates and to support them in establishing start-ups - VUM has proven experience in the development and management of applied scientific, research, education and other projects financed by the structural funds and the EU programs such as Atlantis, Tempus, LLL, Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens, JOP Black Sea Basin, Interreg. The institution is the first HEI in Bulgaria that was initiator and coordinator of successfully finished projects in the EC programs TEMPUS IV and Atlantis

II. Research Capacity

A significant number of the VUM lecturers publish in international scientific journals whereby they enhance the image of the higher school as an incubator for qualitative scientific work:

- VUM hosts a Regional Centre of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

- VUM publishes European Journal of Tourism Research (EJTR, http://ejtr.vumk.eu) – the only scientific journal in the field of tourism in Bulgaria published in English with the editorial board of 52 leading lecturers and researchers in the tourism field from 26 countries. The journal was indexed in Scopus and Web of Science in 2016.

- According to the latest rating of the Bulgarian higher schools in 2019, published by MES, VUM occupies the fifth in the country for the number of citations in the scientific fields ‘Administration and Management’ and ‘Economics’ as to Scopus and the second place for scientific research in the area of Tourism.

- According to Scopus, VUM lecturers have been authoring 12 of the 50 most cited publications (24%) published between 2010-2019 in the field of social sciences, business, economics, finances and accounting, humanitarian sciences.