| St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Home Address |
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Zhelyu Vladimirov was a visiting scholar during the 2005-2006 academic year at The George Washington University. His visit to the USA was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. His mentor at GWU was Professor George Solomon. 1. Expectations The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia was re-established after the 1989 changes in order to respond to the development of a market economy and a democratic society in Bulgaria. Fourteen years later the Faculty has become one of the leading institutions for teaching and research in the field of Economics and Business in Bulgaria, according to a research paper by the World Bank. In spite of this high evaluation, he believed that business studies needed to be seriously improved. For instance, about 92% of Bulgarian enterprises are micro-enterprises, another 8% are small and medium sized, and only 0.3% of them have more than 250 employees. Given this situation one can expect that business education and research needs to concentrate on small business issues. The curriculum design in management disciplines however (teaching courses, manuals, books, translations, etc.) is drawn from the models of highly developed business schools and is based on the experiences of big corporations. This discrepancy can not to be underestimated because only a small number of students go to large firms, while the majority of them have to adapt to the small business environment. In addition, the government needsto focus their policies on stimulating the small business sector. Consequently, he believes that the curriculum design for business studies has to be reshaped in accordance with giving more attention to the small business sector in the Bulgarian economy and to government policies for its development. Also the methodology of teaching management disciplines needs to use more interactive forms of study, more practical training courses, sharing education by regularly inviting acting entrepreneurs and managers, more use of empirical research and case studies, andincreasing students’ involvement in research. His intentions were to contribute to curriculum improvement in management studies by preparing a first draft of a new course on small business development; gathering the course support materials for a comprehensive reader of exemplary texts; and piloting a new teaching methodology based on more active student involvement (discussions, case studies, etc.). To achieve these goals he directly observed of the ways business studies are organized at GWU. He hoped to find answers to the following questions: What kind of techniques and teaching materials are used in order to make the university education more interactive and practically oriented. What is the place and functioning of online learning? In what ways are students stimulated to take part in the class activities and research? How are valuable case studies acquired? What are the possibilities for public-private partnerships in management education? What are the models of business schools as business incubators? 2. Outcomes In light of the above proposals he attended three courses during the fall 2005, related to the small business and entrepreneurship development (MGT 216 – Prof. Umpleby, MGT 291- Prof. Solomon, MGT 292 – Prof. Donnelly). The courses gave him first hand impressions on how business education is organized at the GWU School of Business. He received valuable experience in terms of student-professor interactive teaching, students’ motivation to participate actively in class, regular assignments and regular evaluations, mid-term and final exams, students’ feedback to the courses, etc. Most of his time, however, was devoted to gathering the necessary materials for the new course development. He had the possibility to check out new manuals on the topic, to download and to copy chapters and articles, which he believes, will be a solid ground for the envisaged course and course reader on small business and entrepreneurship. During his stay he had opportunities to attend many interesting events (lectures, book presentations, etc.) in important international institutions like the World Bank, Woodrow Wilson Centre, United Nations, Hudson Institute, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and many others. The overall vibrant scientific, political, and cultural life in Washington, DC, left a profound imprint in his mind, and now he can say that the initial expectations were far surpassed. |
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