ADDRESS OF THE ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP OF VFU "CHERNORIZETS HRABAR"

19 December 2020

Dear students, colleagues and partners of the University,

The last days of 2020 are coming to an end. A year that we called a "challenge" in the first months. A difficult year. Different. A year in which we proved our values by putting the health, life and well-being of our academic family first. A year in which we relied on our creativity, will and entrepreneurship.
In the new crisis conditions, our main goals were the physical and mental health of students, faculty and administrative staff, ensuring the normal functioning of collective academic bodies and guaranteeing all academic rights and freedoms. Clear communication channels and rules have been established, including standards for ethical conduct and communication in the online space.

The team of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" faced the COVID crisis as a challenge to its technological innovation. Our adaptation in March was lightning fast and we did not lose a single day of the learning process. In less than a week, all individual and group learning activities were redirected to an electronic environment. The lecturers have created more than 600 courses in the e-learning platform of the university and published many useful educational resources in them.

The activity of the students who were present in our virtual classrooms was impressive. The quantity and quality of pedagogical communication and electronic administrative services have significantly increased. The new environment allowed the University to attract more and more lecturers, experts and guests from around the world, who participated in meetings, conferences, trainings, master classes, and students participated from different parts of Bulgaria and Europe.

VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" became the first Bulgarian university, which in May held safe and fair online exams. Exam procedures and protocols were updated to ensure the continuity of all academic processes. The first online regular, remedial and liquidation exams were held. Leading Bulgarian lawyers defended their scientific degrees again in the virtual classrooms of the university.

The candidate-student campaign of VFU “Chernorizets Hrabar was held entirely online. The preparation of the digital classes for the students of Varna Free University and the launch of the "Virtual Open Windows for Candidate Students" provoked the interest of the world news agencies - the French "France-Press" and the leading Italian "NUR Photo" covered the successful start. During the COVID crisis, the university team supported with educational resources over 300 schools in Bulgaria.

The results were immediate. We are proud that in 2020 our university was among the top five most preferred by students in the country. Innovative curricula aimed at revealing the talent of young people, flexible and modern educational approach and personality-oriented forms of education have attracted many talented, capable and confident students. VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" is more and more attractive for the graduates of the language secondary schools, where every fifth first-year student comes from. The relations between education and business attract vocational school students. Every third first-year student has completed his secondary education with excellent results. Our youngest student is only 16 years old, and the oldest - 63. The university is training more and more working young people who want to improve their skills or grow professionally. The first-year students began their training on completely renewed syllabuses and curricula that reveal and develop individual talents and build the competencies necessary for the professions of the future.

The challenges of the year taught us to work in a new environment and in a new way. In conditions where others suffered from redundancies, we attracted 17 new colleagues to our academic staff. We have increased the reputation of the research activity and doubled the number of reported citations in publications, referenced and indexed in world-famous databases with scientific information. We have expanded our technological capabilities, improved our information infrastructure and created a high-tech information system for electronic process management at the university with remote access. We strengthened our partnerships and gained new valuable partners.

In 2020, called by many "critical", the students, faculty and administrative staff of Varna Free University together built our true University of the Future - reborn, modern and full of new opportunities. Alma Mater that showed anti-fragility and proved that it can withstand the tests of reality with excellence - to preserve the health and faith of its community, and to continue to confidently go its way to the future.

Thus we enter 2021 - the year in which we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Varna Free University "Chernorizets Hrabar"
We wish you and your families health and prosperity!
May success and prosperity be with each of us!