The new academic year has begun at the Agricultural University in Plovdiv

The Agricultural University in Plovdiv opened its doors to new students from Bulgaria and abroad on 16 September 2019. The event was welcomed by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Assoc. Prof. Yanko Ivanov, PhD. Prof. Hristina Yankova, Rector of the University, announced the beginning of the 2019/2020 academic year in Auta and congratulated the first-year students of the institution. Nearly 500 new students have been admitted to the University this year, of whom 400 have been admitted under the state order, and the remainder will be fee-paying students. From this academic year the Agricultural University will also offer a new programme – “Economics and Management of Regional Development”. One of the most sought-after programmes again is “Plant Protection”. The foreign students at AU, who will study for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, are from South Africa, Mongolia, Greece, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

In her ceremonial address on the occasion, Prof. Hristina Yankova emphasized that the students have chosen a university with a proven authority in the agricultural sciences, whose assessment on the ten-point scale of the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency is 9.61.

By tradition, after the welcoming speech of the Rector of the Agricultural University, the graduating students handed over to the first-year students the symbols of fertility. Stefan Kirovski from the Faculty of Economics entrusted to first-year student Maksim Gochev from the Faculty of Viticulture and Horticulture the basket of abundance.

One of the most emotional moments of the ceremony was the handing over of the keys to the new training centre for practical training in crop production and plant protection. The centre was opened in the spring, but from this academic year all students will have access to it and will use it to the fullest. The new learning environment is equipped with specialized and lecture halls for practical training, storage facilities, preparation rooms, lecturers’ offices, administrative premises, interactive rooms for educational presentations and seminars, for entrepreneurship and innovation in crop production and agribusiness, and for the application of information technologies in plant protection. The financing of the centre is provided by the European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme “Regions in Growth” 2014–2020 and is of a total value of 3,499,928.11 leva.

At the ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the new academic year, the honorary title Doctor Honoris Causa was conferred on Prof. Dorota Jadczak, PhD, from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland, for her outstanding contribution to the education and development of students and doctoral candidates from AU – Plovdiv in the field of modern agriculture.

Guests at the celebration were: Assoc. Prof. Yanko Ivanov, PhD – Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry; Petar Petrov – Acting Regional Governor; H.E. Maciej Szymański – Ambassador of Poland; H.E. Nargiz Gurbanova – Ambassador of Azerbaijan; Volkan Bozkurt Tanyildiz – Vice-Consul, Regional Consulate of the Republic of Turkey in Plovdiv; Stefan Dimitrov – Procurator of “Neochim” – Dimitrovgrad and Chair of the Board of Trustees of AU; Yana Vangelova – Chair of the National Representation of Student Councils; guests from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland – Prof. Edward Meller, Dean, Prof. Pawel Milczarski, Vice-Dean, and Prof. Dorota Jadczak; lecturers from partner universities under the ACROSS project from Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria; business representatives from Summit Agro, Lemken, Interagri.