The American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) is a private university in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Established in 1991, AUBG had about 1,000 students from over 40 countries on 5 continents as of Fall 2022. Close to 40% of the students are international.
History
Founded in 1991, the American University in Bulgaria is the first American-style, liberal arts undergraduate education institution in Eastern Europe. The university is a cooperative venture established with the support of the U.S. and Bulgarian governments, the Open Society Institute, the City of Blagoevgrad, and the University of Maine.
When it opened its doors in September 1991, AUBG's first-year class was 208 students and it had 16 full-time faculty members. Nowadays, it has around 1000 students from over 40 countries.
By May 2019, twenty-four classes of around 5,000 students had graduated from AUBG.
Funding
The university has three sources of funding: its endowment (which came largely from gifts from the United States Agency for International Development and the Soros Foundation), gifts, and tuition.
Accreditation
Baccalaureate degrees conferred by AUBG are accredited in both Bulgaria and the United States. AUBG is institutionally accredited in the United States from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The university also issues a European Diploma Supplement (part of Europass), which confers automatic recognition of the AUBG degree throughout Europe.
Rankings
For consecutive years, AUBG holds the top position nationally in Business Administration, European Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Political Science and International Relations. The Economics, Computer Science, and Information Systems programs rank second in Bulgaria. A university survey in 2016 found that sixty-five percent of graduating students received more than one job offer or higher degree program acceptance letter when they applied for work or a higher degree upon completing their studies at AUBG. Approximately 20 percent of graduates earned more than $100,000/year and over 20 percent of alumni from 1995 to 2005 who were currently working in the U.S. earned more than $250,000/year.
Academics
The university follows the traditional American-style of education liberal arts. More than 60% of the students graduate from AUBG with two majors or a major and a minor. More than half of graduating seniors complete double majors, while many undergraduates supplement their main field of study with a minor in one of 19 disciplines offered at AUBG.
The university employs about 70 faculty members from over 15 countries.
AUBG students can spend a year or a semester at one of several hundred universities in the United States through the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP). In Europe, AUBG is the holder of a standard Erasmus Charter and has bilateral Erasmus Programme agreements with over 50 institutions.
Graduate programs
In addition to its undergraduate programs, the university offers an Executive MBA program in Sofia.
Non-degree programs
The university offers a number of training courses. Most of these are held in the AUBG Elieff Center for Education and Culture in Sofia.
The Blagoevgrad-based English Language Institute offers English-language instruction at all levels and for all ages year-round.
Tuition and scholarships
AUBG offers spring and fall semester admission on a rolling basis.
The university offers need- and merit-based aid to deserving students.
The AUBG Tchaprachikoff scholarship provides partial funding for tuition for up to two years for Bulgarian AUBG graduates who are admitted to a graduate program in any one of the top 20 national universities in the United States or to any one of the top 20 U.S. schools in the respective fields.
Campus
The Skaptopara campus in Blagoevgrad is home to the university undergraduate programs. It includes three residence halls; Balkanski Academic Center, which houses classrooms, computer labs, and offices; Panitza Library, the largest English-language library in Southeast Europe; and the America for Bulgaria Students center.
The residence halls have aerobic rooms, music practice rooms, multipurpose rooms, billiard and ping pong areas, several television lounges, outside decks, kitchens, and cafes.
The Panitza Library is named for John Dimitry Panitza, a Bulgarian philanthropist and AUBG founder. Through Panitza's efforts, the library developed into the largest English-language library in the region.