In the end of every year, it is usually time for balancing out – time to take a note of what had been done, to highlight the achievements and to set the new goals.
Undoubtedly, for all of us 2018 was a dynamic year, filled with accomplishments and challenges, with new opportunities and surprises. However, when looking back, let us remember to greet each other for the good work and recall some of the most valuable achievements.
This was the year in which again U-Multirank gave the top No.1. position for student mobility worldwide to Varna University of Management, compared to almost 1600 other universities. Our Master programme International Hospitality and Tourism Management is ranked #17 worldwide according to the ranking of Eduniversal Best Masters, while our Master degree in Business Administration (MBA) reached №7 in Central and Eastern Europe according to the same ranking.
This was the year, which started with a new 5-year-long period of accreditation for VUM with evaluation score 8.51 out of 10 from the National Evaluation and Accreditation agency in Bulgaria. Also the year, when the European Journal of Tourism Research celebrates its 10 years anniversary. This is the only Bulgarian scientific journal in the field of tourism, indexed in the world’s largest database of scientific publications Scopus.
In the end of September the 2018-2019 Academic year begun with the welcoming of students from over 20 countries on 5 different continents. With them, VUM’s family now has members from more than 50 nationalities.
At the official ceremony on the occasion of the European Tourism Day, SMARTOURISM.BG annual awards were distributed. The Culinary Arts Institute at the Varna University of Management was awarded in the “University Program” category, which once again proves the innovative approaches that the higher education institution imposes as a norm in the field of tourism and hospitality education.
This is where we should recall the achievements of the Culinary Arts Institute at Varna University of Management during this year. In the period 4-6th September, an International competition in Culinary Arts was organized with the support of the Turkish professional associations in Izmir and Aydin. Chef Stanislav Kubarev, Chef Kaloyan Kolev and Chef Vasil Yakimov competed with 53 participants from Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Palestine and Canada in 7 different categories and impressed the professional Greek, Mexican, Egyptian and Turkish Chefs, who were the judges.
We are reminding that Chef Vasil took the first place for professionals at the national Culinary cup in 2018 in Plovdiv, while, Chef Kaloyan, together with his students from Honduras and Ireland, took the 2nd place as a team.
What the chefs are, same are their students. One week of competing in different culinary categories was spent by the students Stefana Germanova and Daniеl Dvoynin together with their Chef – Instructor Kaloyan Kolev in Strumica. Our students returned with 4 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze from the International Culinary Competition. The International Culinary Competition, organized by the Macedonian professional association GastroMak, partnering with WACS (World Association of Chef Societies – the world’s largest professional chef association), was held in Strumica, Republic of Macedonia from 8th till 12th of October. University students, professional chefs and Chef- Instructors from 16 countries were competing in front of over 30 international jury members. Our students impressed all the participants and the jury with their professionalism and work level.
For another year in a row the active work of Varna University of Management within Erasmus+ program was awarded by the National Erasmus+ Agency in Bulgaria, namely the Center for Human Resource Development. As a tradition, at the end of each year, the Center for Human Resource Development reviews the activities of the largest European program for education, training, youth and sport – Erasmus+. After the valorization of “Erasmus+” projects starting in 2017, the project of Varna University of Management obtained high evaluation and was awarded the Token for Quality for 2018. The received certificate is for a high quality implementation of a project under key activity 1 “Educational Mobility for Citizens”, Higher Education Sector: “Student and Staff Mobility between Program and Partner Countries”.
One of the greatest explorers Christopher Columbus once said: “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” We at VUM assure you that we also have the courage, willingness and professionalism needed for achieving goals and even exploring new continents.
On behalf of the whole team at VUM, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2019!
