The National Sports Academy (NSA) is a specialized higher education institution in the Bulgarian university system with more than 70 years of history. NSA is the only university wholly specialized in sports science in Bulgaria and one of Europe's few sports universities. The higher school has achieved the highest score of the accreditation by the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation of the Republic of Bulgaria. It holds the leading position in the ranking system of university structures in the field of sports education.
The Sports Academy was founded in 1942 to meet the need for PE teachers in the dynamically developing Bulgarian state and its goals of creating a generation of healthy and energetic young people. In the years and with the accumulation of educational and research experience, there appeared a need for even closer cooperation between sports and sports education and science, on the other hand.
The Academy organizes educational programs in sports and sports-related activities at Bachelor, Master, and Doctor's degrees. Scientific activities are carried out by the Center for scientific and applied activities in sport and at the central research units in the structure of the Academy – the departments. Since the first degree of their studies, students have access to scientific equipment and research activities. They are enabled to participate in teams for project activities and inclusion in the clubs of the Academy, which cover 42 sports, develop active athletes, and work with children and youth.
Dormitories, recreation and nutrition places, a medical care center, and a service for career guidance and counseling are available to NSA students. Education at all levels is consistent with the qualifications framework for higher education in the European Higher Education Area. Full compliance of the educational process at NSA with the criteria of the Bologna process ranks NSA among European universities with transparent and comprehensible qualifications, easy recognition of diplomas on the labor market and in continuing education, good student mobility, and opportunity of combining national and international characteristics during the study process.
As a result of fundamental political, economic, and social transformations in Bulgaria during the last decades, sports and physical education were significantly affected. Nowadays, it faces new global challenges.
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