• Regular - 8 semesters - Info Pack

Training objective

The program should provide students with thorough theoretical and practical skills in corporate and public finance through a system of fundamental and applied disciplines.

The students' education includes mandatory, elective and optional disciplines. It provides the fundament, upon which the modern management is built, at the same time using the foreign experience in the sphere of bank and finance practices. Skills of prompt and adequate reactions, consistent with the changing environment are formed. Habits of using management technologies are built through software products and good orientation in the rich information base, making use of the Internet environment.

The graduates from this major can work in the financial sector of the national economy with vast opportunities for careers in public and corporate finance, banks, non-bank financial institutions, investment funds, insurance and social security, pension funds, tax and customs administration, state financial control and national audit office, stock and commodity exchange, financial department of companies. The Bachelors in Economic, Major Finance can take the following positions:

- financial manager, financial specialist in budget organizations, loan officer,  broker, dealer,  tax officer, insurance specialist, specialist in social insurance, customs officer etc.

Requirements for the training of financier-economists:

The economist should possess a high level of social and economic culture. To provide this, the block semester training includes mandatory disciplines, which have been determined by the respective normative documents, as well as elective and optional disciplines, included in the curriculum by a decision of the respective department and the Faculty Council. This helps to balance the acquired knowledge, according to the state requirements, at the same time enabling the respective governing body and the students themselves to freely model the major's curriculum.

The general theoretical disciplines, which provide fundamental knowledge of the socio-political processes in the market economy, constitute a significant part of the curriculum. Beside these, the bachelor economist should have sound knowledge of the general principles and methods of management, viewed through the prism of global macroeconomic processes. They should have sound training in company management as a whole - production, finance, innovations, staff etc.

The economist specialized in finance should have general knowledge in the following spheres:

• higher calculus, general theory of law, micro and macroeconomics, economic theories, European economic cooperation;
• marketing, business planning and control, general theory of management, economic history, accounting, statistics, economics of labor, finance, prices and price policy;
• corporate accounting, banking, corporate finance, investments and investment policy, financial analysis, stock-markets and stock-market operations;
• International finance, bank accounting, budget accounting etc.

The financier should possess the following basic skills:

• to develop a financial plan and strategy for company activity growth;
• to have qualities directed towards the strategic corporate finance management and the ability to "take a picture" of the present condition of the external environment and "catch" the leading tendencies in the financial markets development;
• to be able to organize and perform marketing studies using the whole range of methods and technologies for this;
• to make a complete analysis of the company's financial and economic activity using statistical or other research methods;
• To be able to process, systemize, analyze and identify the major trends in the company's activity, in order to facilitate the investment decision process.

Those who have acquired a bachelor degree in Major "Finance" can practice the following professions and take the respective positions in accordance with the National classification of professions and job positions, 2011:

- 1211 Managers of financial activities; - 1213 Internal audit manager; - 1346 Head of a branch of a financial and insurance institution; - 2111 Auditors and accountants; - 2441Economists; - 2422 Specialist in administrative policy (accounting); - 7040 Head of Bulgarian National Audit Office;  - 7043 Analysis and prognosis manager;  - Head of strategic planning; - 7045 Head of a branch of the National Social Security Institute; - 5056 Project manager; - 3312 Credit specialist; - 3311 Securities broker; - 3313 Operations accountant; - 3314 Applied specialist statistics; - 3315 Assessor of property and damage; - 3324 Trade agent; - 4311 Accountant; - 3321 Insurance agent; - 3334 Real estate and property management agents; - 3341 Office manager; - 3351 Customs and border inspectors; - 3352 Civil servants performing tax and financial control; - 3353 Inspector in state administration on social assistance and social security; - 3359 Applied specialists in tax administration; - 4211 Bank tellers; - 4214 Debt collectors; - 4312 Employees keeping statistical, financial and insurance documents.

The qualification characteristics of Major "Finance" for Education and Qualification Degree "Bachelor" with professional qualification "Economist" is a basic document which defines and presets the further designing of the curriculum and study course programs. The qualification characteristics is in compliance with the Higher Education Act of the Republic of Bulgaria, with the Regulations for the state requirements for awarding educational and qualification degrees of "Master", "Bachelor" and "Specialist" and with the internal regulations of the South-West University "Neofit Rilski".