The Bulgarian University Ranking System web portal was created in 2010 under the project “Development of a Ranking System for the Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Bulgaria”.

Two types of rankings are available for the users of the Bulgarian University Ranking System – a predefined ranking and a custom ranking that can be created for each professional field. The rankings are arranged based on chosen indicators and their weight (significance) with which they participate in the formation of the final score. In the predefined rankings there is a fixed number of indicators and weights for each of them, that the users of the system cannot change. In custom rankings users have the opportunity to choose their own set of indicators and choose the weights of those indicators in the calculation of the final score in their personalized ranking. This ranking can be used to compare the performance of each higher education institution within the same professional field.

Since indicators derive figures expressed in different units of measure (number, attitude scale, percentage, currency, etc.), proper ranking requires that values be standardized. This is accomplished through a statistical procedure called z-scores, which renders indicator values comparable, while maintaining their order and proportions. Standardization follows a classical method based on weighted mean and standard deviation. Thus, the final score for each university in the ranking is presented on a scale from 0 to 100.

The Ranking System uses more than 100 different indicators against which universities can be compared. The indicators have been developed based on statistical data collected from different sources, including sociological surveys, and are grouped into six criteria:

• Teaching and learning (including e.g. participation in interships, assessment of mobility opportunities, joint programs with foreign universities, etc.)
• Science and research (including e.g. H-index by scientific area, average number of citations per paper, number of articles, etc.)
• Teaching and learning environment (including: satisfaction with the teaching and learning environment, etc.) 
• Welfare and administrative services (including scholarships, administration’s assessment of social and living conditions, etc.)
• Prestige (including: prestige among employers, prestige among students, satisfaction with the choice made, etc.) 
• Career relevance to labour market and regional importance (including: unemployment among graduates, regional career realization, graduates’ insurable income, etc.)