| Bulgarians use the term "The Changes" to represent the event in 1989 of the displacement of communism by democracy and the consequences which followed. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to develop an organized body of information to understand the progress and the problems of Bulgaria's oldest institution of higher education, Sofia University, in transition from communism to democracy.;The researcher interviewed administrators, teachers, student services personnel, and students at Sofia University and people from government and society in general. Transcripts of interviews were examined using QST NUD*IST 4 text analysis software. Texts of the interviews were coded into the database according to the Original Categories of inquiry basic to the definition of an institution of higher education: contexts, mission, access, governance and structure, function and resources. Cross-categories were coded as they emerged and interacted with the Original Categories giving rise to a two-dimensional weaving metaphor for the presentation of the data. The Emergent Cross-Categories were: accountability, public information, and public relations; change; collectivism and individualism; internationalization; quality and autonomy; suspicion of corruption; inefficiency and bureaucracy; and money.;The major findings in the research were the outcomes of drastic changes in the political and economic contexts of higher education. Money for salaries, operation expenses, maintenance, and modern technology are now at a fraction of what is needed. The communist legacy of central control, layers of bureaucracy, elitist thinking about access to higher education, suspicion, lack of public information and accountability, collectivist thinking, assumptions about a hierarchy of quality all emerged as dysfunctional for higher education in a democracy and a world economy. Many challenges lie ahead: achieving true institutional autonomy, facing the looming teacher shortage because aging teachers can't afford to retire, and coping with unemployment at home and the Brain Drain of graduates to the West.;Sofia University's strong commitment to international involvement and quality education may be functional in acquiring the necessary new habits of thinking and new entrepreneurial skills to survive the change from communism to a democracy in a free market, global economy. |
