Bulgarians visit CU to begin forging educational ties

Educators from the University of Rousse, Bulgaria, met with Cornell faculty and researchers on campus last week to discuss their educational partnership. From left, Stoyanka Smrikarova, head of the Department of Computing at the University of Rousse, Daniel Pavlov, a Cornell Ph.D. student, and David Brown, professor of development sociology at Cornell, chat at one of the meetings. Robert Barker/University Photography

By Susan S. Lang

Bulgaria is trying to transform itself from a post-socialist state into one that is compatible with the European Union (EU), which Bulgaria is hoping to join by 2007. To do this it needs to train its local leaders to address the nation's uneven development.

To help Bulgaria meet these challenges, educators from Cornell and the University of Rousse, Bulgaria, met on campus last week to discuss their educational partnership to develop a master's degree program in regional development management at Rousse and an off-campus certificate program for local officials focusing on regional development management.

"Bulgaria's post-socialist transformation has resulted in regional inequality and environmental damage," said David Brown, professor of development sociology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the Cornell co-leader of the new partnership with Gerald White, professor of applied economics and management. "Educational programs to address the challenges of uneven development are largely absent in Bulgarian higher education. And, since regional development is an important aspect of the EU accession process, Bulgaria needs leaders who can manage the process of territorial change to make a smooth 'transition to Europe.'"

The partnership is funded by a two-year, $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State and a smaller grant from the Tianaderrah Foundation. Last week's campus meetings involved 11 prominent faculty members from Rousse, including Vasil Penchev, dean of the faculty of business and management, and Cornell faculty. The primary purpose of their visit was syllabus development.

The three new master's program courses at Rousse and the two off-campus courses and a certificate program that the group worked on will be taught by Rousse faculty. However, in spring 2005, Cornell faculty will travel to Bulgaria to participate in the pilot-testing of the courses.

Also attending last week's campus meeting were three University of Rousse doctoral students.

The Cornell-Rouse partnership, which was proposed by Polina Malinova, a Bulgarian Hubert E. Humphrey Fellow who spent the 2001-02 academic year at Cornell, is an interdisciplinary program coordinated and administered through International Programs in CALS. Collaborating faculty are from CALS' departments of applied economics and management, development sociology, natural resources, crop and soils and education, and also include faculty from the Department of City and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Cornell Law School.