“Angel Kanchev” University of Ruse adopted its Gender Equality Plan

On May 17, 2022, the Academic Council of “Angel Kanchev” University of Ruse (URAK) in Bulgaria officially endorsed the university’s Gender Equality Plan (GEP), which was established as part of the ATHENA project.

Given that the GEP at URAK demonstrates a high level of female/male tolerance and thus serves as an example for sustaining national culture, the GEP is expected to be replicated at other Bulgarian universities as a model for sustaining national culture while overcoming equity-related obstacles in the international environment.

In the year 2022, the URAK Academic Council will make some relative improvements to internal academic regulations while maintaining equal opportunities for female and male researchers at all levels, including students, PhD candidates, professors, and others.

The URAK’s GEP will be presented for the first time on June 10th, 2022, at the 6th Youth EXPO, an event with key stakeholders that brings together individuals representing the Bulgarian Ministry of Education as well as other universities, student organisations, secondary schools, regional and municipal authorities, and business people who support the event.

As a result of the ATHENA project, URAK is the pioneer of the first GEP under the Horizon 2020 program in Bulgaria. Given that the university has well-established research traditions in over 18 different scientific fields, as well as the fact that a large number of accomplished female academics have contributed notable articles to scholarly publications that have been indexed by SCOPUS, Web of Science, and other databases, this is critical for the university’s future.

The Bulgarian academic community’s efforts to maintain the already high level of respect for Bulgarian female scientists have been bolstered by the GEP!