Acad. Prof. Lachezar Traykov, MD, D.Sc., is the new-elected Rector of MU-Sofia. He was elected with 330 votes in favor out of a total of 356 voters at the Regular Reporting and Election Meeting of the University, which was held yesterday in Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture. The delegates also elected Acad. Prof. Vanio Mitev, MD, PhD, DSc., as the new Chairman of the General Assembly. He replaced Prof. Dr. Gencho Nachev, who headed the General Assembly for four consecutive terms. The forum was held in compliance with all anti-epidemic measures.
Acad. Traykov remained the only candidate for successor of the current rector – Prof. Dr. Victor Zlatkov, MD. The other candidate for the Rector’s post was Prof. Kostadin Angelov, who resigned because he became Minister of Health a few days ago.
The new rector graduated from MU-Sofia in 1983. He worked for 9 years as a researcher at INSERM Unit 324, Paris, France. In 1999, he was habilitated as Head of Research Center at the Faculty of Medicine, Cochin Port-Royal, Rene Descartes University, Paris. In 2002, he was elected a university professor of neuroscience by the National University Council of France. After his return to Bulgaria, he continued his research activities and the management of the Center for Memory Disorders at Alexandrovska Hospital. In 2007 he became the head of the Clinic of Neurology at the hospital, and from 2009 to 2013 he was its director. From 2008 to 2012 he was Deputy Dean of the Medical Faculty at MU-Sofia. He heads the Center for Dementology, recognized as one of the 40 Centers of Excellence in Europe for research in the field of Alzheimer’s disease. Acad. Traykov is a scientist with over 150 scientific papers, of which 75 are articles in some of the most elite medical journals in the world.
“My ideas are in line with the policy of the Ministry of Education and Science for the development of the Medical University”, said in his speech to the delegates Acad. Traykov, outlining the strategic priorities in his future Work Programme as follows:
- orientation towards practical training;
- increasing the share of the results of the current control in forming an assessment in the respective discipline;
- maintaining a common electronic platform, providing online admission of students, training, their semester and annual assessment, as well as opportunities for conducting state exams in an electronic environment;
- digitization of the educational and medical documentation, creating a continuous Feedback Loop, as the students reflect their opinion after each lesson, lecture, exercise;
- increase from 10% to 50% of the share of curricula with integrated e-learning;
- increasing the number of curricula implemented with other educational and scientific institutions in the country;
- participation in networks for joint training with other medical universities and foreign universities;
- inclusion of disadvantaged and underrepresented students in mobility.
Regarding the expansion of professional qualification at the university, Acad. Traykov pointed out as a good practice the participation of lecturers from the Faculty of Medicine at MU-Sofia with colleagues from the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ” in the development of a Master’s program in Biology and Medical Informatics.
The General Assembly also elected the team of the new Supervisory Board and members of the new Academic Council. The delegates unanimously decided that Prof. Gencho Nachev should become the honorary chairman of the General Assembly.
