Dear colleagues,
Dear graduates,
Dear freshmen,
Over the past few years, Bulgarian higher education has often been subjected to meaningful, but sometimes devoid of logic, reforms. Logically, these reforms led either to efficiency or to crises. In recent years, Bulgarian higher education has been in a permanent crisis. It exists in systemic financial scarcity. Deficiency, which is undoubtedly the result of inadequate policies. However, despite the thesis that education abroad is better than Bulgarian, despite the often appearing desires from the map of Bulgarian higher education to be deleted one or another university, today, the University of Telecommunications and Post for the 143rd time opens its new academic year.
Today, for the 143rd time, we are sending graduates. For the 143rd time, here at the UTP, the hope of the freshman for a successful start at the university and the confidence of the graduates for a successful professional realization are given to each other.
Dear freshmen,
You are embarking on your four-year career in engineering and management education. This time you will walk it together with your teachers – hand in hand. And you, dear graduates, with a diploma in hand, begin to bring value to the Bulgarian economy. This value brings progress, innovation, development for all of us. But development cannot happen without education. And education cannot happen without the people who are its circulatory system and in Bulgarian universities these are the academic and administrative staff of each university. Therefore, today it is time to thank your assistants, associate professors, professors who, despite their low salaries, continue to build on the engineering and management thought of young people at this hour. These professors of yours, despite the lack of adequate funding in the field of science, continue to publish in some of the world’s most renowned scientific journals. For them, not only is UTP a cause, but the whole Bulgarian higher education is a cause.
On a day like today, I can’t help but thank my colleagues. My colleagues, who with their dedication accept the vision for the development of the University. And when I say vision, I would like to share with you that the University is a visionary in the Bulgarian educational area. Just three years ago we were the first in Bulgaria to create interdisciplinary courses. We launched them together with our colleagues from the medical universities in Plovdiv and Pleven, and with our colleagues from the Georgi Benkovski Air Force Academy in Dolna Mitropolia. We started them without a single lev funding from the state or from Europe because we were visionaries and we knew that the future belongs to the interdisciplinarity. Today, specialties such as Telemedicine, Software Design in Medicine, Air Traffic Management Communication Systems, Digital Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence are preparing the engineers of the future. And the future is full of challenges. These challenges await you, dear graduates, because from tomorrow you are on the labor market. Be sure you are prepared – your practical classes, internships were led by experts from practice. Experts from the world’s leading telecommunications and IT companies. Together with them you solved practical cases, together with them you started your first work commitments, you found your first jobs. That is why, I am confident, in whatever company you work, you are worthy and you will cope with the challenges.
Dear freshmen,
You are taking the four-year path of engineering and management knowledge. This time it’s hard, but it’s also easy. Easy, because you will find new friends, new like-minded people, you will find your business partners or partners in your future projects. Here you can start your startups in our Digital Entrepreneurship Center. Our goal is to teach you to dream and achieve your professional aspirations. Take heart, dear freshmen!
Dear graduates,
Today you are on your way to the job market. Whatever you achieve in your career – fly, but be adaptable too. The future belongs not only to the fastest, but also to the most flexible. Wherever you go, carry the University of Telecommunications and Post in your hearts. Keep its name. Protect with your knowledge, skills and competences the diplomas you have received.
Let there be wind in your sails, dear graduates!
To you, freshmen – a successful school year!
Congratulations on our 143rd school year!
