In the period between the 1921 reforms and the years just before World War II, there were nine institutions of higher education in Bulgaria. The University of Sofia was both the largest and the oldest. The most popular faculties in higher educational institutions at that time in order of popularity were: education, law, economics, medicine, and agriculture. The arts were the least popular faculty. In mid 1973 statistics were unavailable for both engineering and physical education (see table 9).
When the Communists took power in 1944 they made sweeping changes in the field of higher education. Universities--which had heretofore been autonomous--were put under state control; members of the party sat on faculty councils that selected and promoted professors. University graduates were placed by the government and were subject to punishment under the newly established penal code if they refused to accept assignments.
_Table 9. Number and Proportion of Students in Various Bulgarian University Faculties, Selected Years, 1939-71_
-----------+---------------+---------------+---------------+--------------- | 1939 | 1948 | 1960 | 1970 |-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- | |Percent| |Percent| |Percent| |Percent | | of | | of | | of | | of |Number | Total |Number | Total |Number | Total |Number | Total -----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Engineering| n.a. | ... | 182 | 5.4 | 1,480 | 25.5 | 5,042 | 40.6 Agriculture| 127 | ... | 768 | 22.9 | 1,088 | 18.8 | 1,415 | 11.4 Medicine | 139 | ... | 729 | 21.8 | 911 | 15.7 | 1,174 | 9.5 Economics | 230 | ... | 716 | 21.3 | 889 | 15.4 | 1,895 | 15.2 Arts | 55 | ... | 86 | 2.6 | 268 | 4.6 | 319 | 2.6 Education | 365 | ... | 388 | 11.6 | 827 | 14.3 | 2,163 | 17.4 Physical | | | | | | | | education| n.a. | ... | 40 | 1.2 | 169 | 2.9 | 259 | 2.1 Law | 307 | ... | 441 | 13.2 | 157 | 2.7 | 142 | 1.1 | | |-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- TOTAL | | | 3,350 | 100.0 | 5,789 | 99.9*|12,409 | 99.9* -----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- n.a.--not available. ... not applicable. * Columns do not add to 100 because of rounding. Source: Adapted from _Statistical Yearbook, 1971_, Sofia, 1971, p. 247.