System zapewniania jakości w bułgarskim szkolnictwie wyższym – rozwój czy stagnacja?

This paper reports from a study on formal and informal implementation of quality assurance system –the main instrument of Bologna Process – In Bulgarian higher education. Usually studies on the reform do not develop simultaneous top-down and bottom-up perspective and do not contain rank and file academic staff opinions. Whereas quality cannot be improved without academics involvement into this process and policy. At the beginning of the paper two ideas of quality in higher education were described. Then we can find brief characteristic of the contemporary Bulgarian higher education, institutional change theory and methodological frameworks. The last sections present two parts of the research. 1) Analyses of formal frameworks of Bulgarian quality assurance were based on the document: The European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in European Higher Education Area” and the model “Phases in quality assurance system”. 2) The second part of the study refers to Bulgarian academics expectations toward QA. Refer to above mentioned model, QA system should solve key problems of higher education. Therefore respondents were to point out and describe crucial weaknesses of Bulgarian universities during in-depth interviews. According to the study, Bulgarian quality assurance system has been operating at the basic technical levels for several years. It has not managed yet to resolve fundamental problems of Bulgarian higher education. Its main task is to control Bulgarian universities and legitimize them as European higher education organizations. Moreover, Bulgarian academics have little knowledge about QA and Bologna Process. They are not interested in these issues because they do not really affect and change Bulgarian higher education.