Six young people symbolically took over leadership posts at Burgas State University "Prof. Dr Asen Zlatarov" for a day. Four are students at the university and two are pupils at the Commerce High School in Burgas, the university said. The day was part of the "Manager for a Day" initiative, which the university runs with its partner JA Bulgaria.
Two female students stood in for the vice-rector for academic affairs. One student became dean of the Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship, and a fellow student became head of the quality laboratory. The two pupils served as director of the "Academic Activities" directorate.
Their mentors were vice-rector for academic affairs Prof. Dr Sevdalina Turmanova and Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship dean Prof. Dr Dobromir Yordanov. They described their daily duties and how they work.
The participants toured the administrative units. They learned how the work is organised, how the university is run and what responsibilities each post carries.
They were then given a case study with the task "Optimising the quality index of a degree programme at Burgas State University "Prof. Dr Asen Zlatarov"". They looked at several degree programmes, discussed how to improve their indicators and suggested ways to raise the quality of teaching.
The initiative aims to let young people see at first hand how a university is run and to put themselves in the place of the heads of academic and administrative units. The university says this gives them a practical idea of management, develops their analytical and organisational skills and builds experience for their future careers.
In October we reported that Burgas State University "Prof. Dr Asen Zlatarov" hosted a meeting of four universities on a joint master's programme in arts management. Rector Prof. Dr Sotir Sotirov and vice-rector for academic affairs Prof. Dr Sevdalina Turmanova took part.
At the end of the day, rector Prof. Dr Sotir Sotirov and Prof. Dr Dobromir Yordanov presented certificates to the participants.