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Last updated: 01.10.2005. |
Contribution
of Higher Education Institutions to Bulgarian
Integration Into the European Education Area Iordanka
Kouzmanova (Abstact)
The paper analyzes the
state-of-the-art and the problems of higher education in Bulgaria. The
objectives discussed are: the perspectives for the development of Bulgarian
universities in the light of the Bologna process and Berlin communiqué
about the realization of the European higher education area; the changes needed
for quality improvement and increasing the competitiveness of higher education
in Bulgaria; the necessity of identifying the contact points between university
management and student organizations. The
following conclusions can be drawn on the basis of the presented data: 1/
Meeting the requirements in
relation with the accession of Bulgaria to the EU is an indispensable part of
the whole development of the reform in higher education. 2/
The Bologna declaration
issues are compulsory elements for the integration of all the European
countries, their realization being related to a number of additional processes
in the European educational reform (Lisbon, Prague). 3/
Bulgaria has fully achieved
the formal compliance with the European dimensions set in the Bologna process,
thus manifesting a high degree of political readiness to participate actively in
the construction of the European higher education area. 4/
It is necessary to further
accelerate the processes of changing the interrelation between higher education
and the future realization of the graduates. 5/
The process of European
integration requires above all well thought national approach to the common
goals with the clear consciousness that the common European policy in the area
of higher education is and will remain additional, directing, however, not
replacing the national approach.
Academic Journals and their Impact Factor Borislav V. Toshev (Abstract) The
new scientific results should be published. The main functions of the academic
journals are: i) to produce, disseminate and exchange the scientific knowledge;
ii) to rank research in order to assist the distribution of the research funds
and iii) to facilitate the employment and promotion of the people involved in
science. The system of scientific periodicals has functioned in two levels. The
first level includes both the primary research journals and scholarly journals
with more expanded audience. The second level includes the secondary research
journals. It is just the world system of abstracting, indexing and evaluation of
the scientific results. The assessment of the academic journals is by their
involvement in Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Science Citation Index
and Art and Humanities Citation Index. The reasons for such a structure of the
system and the ways of its functioning are described and commented. Citation
analysis is of an importance mainly because it is heavily used in science policy
and research evaluation professionals. The most popular indicators in such
considerations are the impact factor IF, the immediacy index II and the response
time t1. The meaning and application of these parameters are
explained. The incorrect use of the impact factor in the Bulgarian evaluation
practice is mentioned. Two new indicators that would characterize quantitatively
the scientific achievements of the researchers are proposed: efficiency e=nk,
n and k – number of the author’s publications and their
citations, respectively, and personal impact factor PIF=q/m where q
is the number of citations in a given year of m author’s publications,
published in two previous years.
The
European Policy of Mainstreaming Gender Equality: Women
and Science in Bulgaria Nikolina
Sretenova (Abstract)
This paper
aims to provide some insights in the gender gap in the
R&D and HE (Higher Education)
sectors in
Bulgaria during the communist time, transitional period
(1990-2000) as well as to focus attention on the current situation of women in science in the context of Enlargement. Against this
background it denounces some myths and popular delusions related with the gender
equality issue in the contemporary Bulgarian society.
The other aim of the paper is to highlight the policy of mainstreaming
gender equality implemented from the European Commission Directorate-General for
Research within the FP5 and the FP6 of the EU. The
paper also focuses attention on the activity of the ENWISE
(Enlarge Women
In Science to East)
Expert Group.
The Group was launched by the Research
Directorate-General in 2002 under the action No. 27 of the Action Plan of the Science and
Society Programme of the FP6. The ENWISE Expert Group involves independent
experts from 10 post-communist countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia
plus one expert from the former GDR and one expert for the Balkan region. Its
objective is the assessing
of the conditions and status of women scientists in the
Central and Eastern European countries and the Baltic States. The ENWISE Expert Group produced a report – Waste of talents: turning private
struggles into public issue. Women and Science in the Enwise countries.
The ENWISE Report appeared in English as European Commission edition (ISBN
92-894-6750-9, EC, 2004) and till the end of 2004 it will appear in the
languages of the participating countries, i.e. in Bulgarian as well.
The Report
makes recommendations to a series of stakeholders: the Commission, the European
Parliament, the Enwise countries, as well as the current EU Member States and
organizations that educate, fund and employ scientists. Organizational
and Management Improvement of Small
and Medium Sized Enterprises through
the Six Sigma Approach Lidia
Galabova (Alstract) The paper is aimed at researching the historical background and theoretical development of the Six Sigma àpproach in the context of the contemporary management and engineering science. It makes a comparative review of the goals and the role of quality improvement initiatives like ISO 9000, Quality Awards and Six Sigma. The necessity and benefits of implementing the Six Sigma Approach under the conditions of the contemporary small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are clarified. The paper looks at the changing business environment and the possibility of applying the Six Sigma not only as a tool for quality improvement, but as a management approach as well. The possibilities for continuous organization and management development due to the Six Sigma implementation are reviewed. |
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