UNIVERSITIES – A NEW WAY FOR DEVELOPMENT

This research analyses the role of universities as a driving force of development, as part of a developing high-tech society that sets different standards and focus areas. The reversed top-down direction with the set requirements and criteria for growth gave university education and science a high formalism, which is expressed in self-sufficient academic growth, not particularly effective project funding and untapped potential for society. European and national policies in the field of education and science are being analyzed, which are expected to generate ideas and new models for development, form new focus areas and positions that will not reflect everyday life in the system, but will look years ahead. Reforming universities has long been on the agenda mainly, but not only, due to changes in the social environment, in the economy, in technologies, in risks and pandemics. Universities are the ones that “produce” human resources for the leadership of the state, for the management and maintenance of each system. This work attempts to discuss knowledge sharing as part of the Open Science movement. It attempts to briefly analyse its historical development and the options for modern implementation of the open science idea. It discusses the process of knowledge sharing as an element of recognition of scientific works and part of social development. It seeks a solution to the established national and other restrictions for sharing of knowledge, as well as its importance in the situation of limited sharing. The article also discusses the process of changes in the higher education system in Bulgaria related to the consolidation of Bulgarian universities