no figures are available for
schools of other languages, in 1973 there were six English-language
schools with fifteen native English instructors. Of the total number of
places available in these language schools, 50 percent are reserved for
girls and 50 percent for boys. Of the same total, 20 percent are
reserved for children of "the active fighters against fascism and
capitalism."

Higher Education

In the period between the 1921 reforms and the years just before World
War II, there were nine institutions of higher education in Bulgaria.
The University of Sofia was both the largest and the oldest. The most
popular faculties in higher educational institutions at that time in
order of popularity were: education, law, economics, medicine, and
agriculture. The arts were the least popular faculty. In mid 1973
statistics were unavailable for both engineering and physical education
(see table 9).

When the Communists took power in 1944 they made sweeping changes in the
field of higher education. Universities--which had heretofore been
autonomous--were put under state control; members of the party sat on
faculty councils that selected and promoted professors. University
graduates were placed by the government and were subject to punishment
under the newly established penal code if they refused to accept
assignments.

_Table 9. Number and Proportion of Students in Various Bulgarian
University Faculties, Selected Years, 1939-71_

-----------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------
| 1939 | 1948 | 1960 | 1970
|-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| |Percent| |Percent| |Percent| |Percent
| | of | | of | | of | | of
|Number | Total |Number | Total |Number | Total |Number | Total
-----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
Engineering| n.a. | ... | 182 | 5.4 | 1,480 | 25.5 | 5,042 | 40.6
Agriculture| 127 | ... | 768 | 22.9 | 1,088 | 18.8 | 1,415 | 11.4
Medicine | 139 | ... | 729 | 21.8 | 911 | 15.7 | 1,174 | 9.5
Economics | 230 | ... | 716 | 21.3 | 889 | 15.4 | 1,895 | 15.2
Arts | 55 | ... | 86 | 2.6 | 268 | 4.6 | 319 | 2.6
Education | 365 | ... | 388 | 11.6 | 827 | 14.3 | 2,163 | 17.4
Physical | |