Sofia, University of

(full name, Kliment Okhridski University of Sofia), the first and largest institute of higher education in Bulgaria. Founded as a pedagogical school in 1888, it was reorganized as the High School in 1889 and became a university in 1904. The university was named after Kliment Okhridski in 1905.

The University of Sofia has been a center for the dissemination of Marxism in Bulgaria since the late 19th century. During the fascist monarchy (1923–44), students and teachers of the university were prominent in the antifascist revolutionary movement. Since the establishment of people’s power, the university has become the leading scientific and pedagogical center of the Bulgarian People’s Republic. Several faculties of the university have been made institutes; they specialize in the fields of medicine, economics, agronomy, zootechnics, agriculture, forestry, and veterinary science.

In the 1973—74 academic year the University of Sofia had faculties of philosophy, history, Slavic philology, Western philology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and geography, and law. The library has more than 700,000 holdings. Tuition has been free since 1960. In the 1973–74 academic year the university had 15,600 students and more than 1,000 teachers, including 134 professors. The University of Sofia has published the Yearbook of the University of Sofia since 1905.