Students and faculty of Sofia University rallied Tuesday to urgently demand a total switch in government policy toward education in a desperate bid to salvage Bulgarian learning and research from what they saw as imminent decay.

More than a thousand people marched from the main building of the University downtown on to the neighboring Parliament building and to the Council of Ministers changing slogans such as "We want to study!" and "Students, gather the trash!"

The rally was led by Sofia University rector Prof. Ivan Ilchev and included faculty, as well as students from Bulgaria's art academies, which are also severely hit by unprecedented cuts in state support for education.

The main argument of the protestors was that undercutting a country's education and science inevitably leads not only to spiritual, but also to social and economic downfall.

Speaker of Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva, who promised to transfer to Sofia University BGN 2 M of savings from the parliamentary budget, came out to speak to protestors, only to be violently booed.

"Why are those young people booing the Bulgarian Parliament?" she asked Ilchev, to which he replied that they are democratically expressing their opinion and are not rooting against the institution, but are objecting to specific policies.

The protesting academics and students argued that they do not want random alms, but rather a systematic and committed state policy which clearly recognizes the value of quality education.

The rally proceeded on to the Council of Minister and the neighboring Ministry of Education, where no one came to meet them.

Posters carried included "Mutrization has failed", "Djankov, there is money!" (referring to Bulgaria's finmin Simeon Djankov) and "Investment, not cuts!".

The Sofia University vowed to strike again should its demands fail to be heard.

They expressed solidarity with their colleagues from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, which is now under an unprecedented attack from the central government.

BAS's own protest is scheduled for later Tuesday evening.

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