Admission Policies in Higher Education during the Communist Regime in Bulgaria
Author: Pepka Boyadjieva
Published by the Institute for Studies of the Recent Past and Ciela Publishers with the kind support of CEE Trust Bulgaria.
Sofia 2010
ISBN: 987-954-28-0714-5
CONTENTS
Preface: Two Metaphors – the “Matryoshka” Doll and the Turtle’s Hollow.
Chapter one: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: VALUES AND POLICIES IN CONTEMPORARY HIGHER EDUCATION
1.1. Beyond the obvious: higher education as an institution
1.2. Policies on access and admission to the system of modern higher education
1.3. Social equity in higher education – mission (im) possible?
1.4. From theory to practice: policies for realization of the social dimension of higher education
1.5. Admission to higher education during the communist regime as an instrument for social engineering – outlining the problem
1.5.1. Social engineering
1.5.2. The social constructivist role of normative acts
1.5.3. Scope and empirical basis of this study
Chapter two: INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE SOCIALIST ADMISSION SYSTEM
2.1. Transforming the admission system from an academic to a state (party) problem
2.2. Main characteristics of the socialist admission system
2.2.1. Appropriation of the admission policies by the state and party authorities
2.2.2. Central planning of students’ admission
2.2.3. Admission policies as ideological construct
2.2.4. Breaking the rules as a rule – unregulated admission
Chapter three: ADMISSION TO HIGHER EDUCATION AS A POLITICAL INSTRUMENT FOR SOCIAL ENGINEERING – FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION
3.1. The Purge
3.2. The Bans
3.3. The Power of the Etiquette – the National Front Notes
Chapter four ADMISSION TO HIGHER EDUCATION AS POLITICAL INSTRUMENT FOR SOCIAL ENGINEERING – THE PRIVILEGES
4.1. Social Privileges
4.1.2. Privileges based on social background
4.1.2. Privileges based on demonstrated party commitment of parents
4.1.3. Privileges based on working-class status
4.1.4. Preparatory courses as a privilege
4.1.5. Privileges based on territorial indicator and selected specialities
4.1.6. Privileges based on ethnic background
4.1.7. Privileges based on gender
4.1.8. The privilege to move beyond the rules
4.2. Academic Privileges
Chapter five: EROSION OF THE SOCIALIST HIGHER EDUCATION ADMISSION’S SYSTEM
5.1. Awareness of the rights-deprived academic community
5.2. Challenging the relevance and the public legitimacy of social privileges
5.3. Increasing the “weight” of academic criteria
5.4. The (im) possible change in the socialist higher education admission system
Chapter six: THE OUTCOMES OF SOCIAL ENGINEERING
6.1. Expansion and “political geography” of higher education
6.2. Altered social origin of the students
6.3. Controlled social mobility
6.4. “More=worse”: lower quality of higher education
6.5. Corruption and moral degradation of society
6.5.1. Fear and seduction: admission policies as a means of getting society under control
6.5.2. The “morality” of a society of privileges
Chapter seven: THE (UN) UNIQUENESS OF THE BULGARIAN CASE
7.1. The institutional embeddedness of higher education in the totalitarian socialist system
7.2. Social engineering in a comparative perspective
7.3. Beyond uniformity
Conclusion: To Be and (or) to Follow
Appendix I: Documents and Normative Acts
Appendix II: Different Fates
Cited Literature, Normative Acts and Archive Documents