Medicine Overtakes Law by Number of Students in Bulgaria, but there is a Shortage of Nurses

Medicine is now fourth in Bulgaria in terms of number of students, having overtaken law. At the same time, to date there is a shortage of healthcare professionals, especially nurses, Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev said in Varna, quoted by Focus Radio. In the coming decades Bulgaria is expected to face a labour shortage in all spheres, therefore higher education and vocational education must match labour demand, he said. In his view, admission into social, economic and legal programmes has to be further reduced parallelly to an increase in the funding per student in other fields, such as energy, physics, chemistry, chemical technology and mathematics. In these specialties, he said, more effort must be made to attract students with scholarships as well as additional funding for the higher schools.