Joint Master of Arts Programs between the New Bulgarian University and Russian Universities

The article describes the structure of the first non-governmental Bulgarian university, opened in 1991 by the decision of the Bulgarian Parliament. The structure of the New Bulgarian University (NBU) is significantly different from the structure of the other Bulgarian universities. The faculties were created on the principles of the educational stages and are responsible for the educational process: Faculty of general studies – for Bachelor’s programs of the 1-st stage (first and second years of study). Bachelor’s faculty – for Bachelor’s programs of the second stage (third and fourth years of study); Master of Arts faculty – for Master and Undergraduate programs. Faculty of distant, online and postgraduate teaching is responsible for the distant learning programs, but is also a methodical stuff for distant learning in all NBU programs. The faculties are ruled by the faculty council, a dean and a director. There is a faculty administration, which serves student and professors and takes care for the development and financial equipment of the learning process. Departments in NBU develop the scientific-researching activity. The distant learning is one of the main competitive advantages of the New Bulgarian University, it gives students an opportunity by Moodle platform and other programs to study virtually being in every place of the world. The innovative opportunities of NBU has drawn attention of the authorities of the Russian universities. There were created joint master of arts programs in modern directions with Bashkirian State Pedagogical University in the name of M. Akmulla /Business communications/ and Moscow State Linguistic University in the name of Mauris Torez /Tourizm/. By that way the students receive two diplomas: from NBU with the European attachment and the Russian one.