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The purpose of this article is to trace and analyze the stages in the development of Bulgarian higher education, the changes in legislative documents caused by the gradually changing integral philosophy of the Bulgarian educational system in accordance with the needs of society. On this basis, identify the main trends and prospects for competitive higher education in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian higher education has a long tradition. These traditions underlie modern higher education, but the article emphasizes

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the challenge facing higher education institutions in our country due to EU membership.

The social and demographic environment in Bulgaria in the last decade has been characterized by some peculiarities caused by mutually intersecting factors and processes. On the one hand, membership in the European Union and the associated positive processes of the free movement of goods, the expansion of the labor market, education without borders and the establishment of European values in the traditional model of Bulgarian education. On the other hand, the ongoing economic crisis, which leads to a further decrease in the standard of living of the population, poverty compared to other EU member states, unemployment, etc. These processes directly affect the higher education sector, while the direction of transformation is contradictory. In accordance with the integral processes in the Bulgarian society, higher education must meet the new socio-economic needs, and this requires reforming the system in this public sector, as well as rethinking and modifying its links with the changing social environment.

The need to harmonize the national regulatory framework with the new European requirements in the educational field (the Bologna process) causes (generates) a lot of questions of a legal, social, economic, institutional and managerial nature for Bulgarian higher education. The development of the economy by ensuring the correspondence between the qualified specialists offered on the market and the needs of business and employers, as well as the increased demands on the academic composition of higher education institutions, as a prerequisite for the quality of education, require many changes in the holistic concept of higher education in Bulgaria.