Photo by Vincent Kern

AUBG to Raise Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year

For the academic year 2026/27, the American University of Bulgaria (AUBG) is raising tuition fees, the mandatory meal plan and housing fees for its students. There will be an overall increase of 275 to 300 euros per semester.

Dilyana Mileva, Vice President of Finance and Administration, mainly explained these changes with minimum wage increases and overall CPI growth in Bulgaria, raising university expenses.

The tuition fees will rise from 6,700 to 6,900 euros per semester, the mandatory meal plan will go up by 50 euros to 200 euros per semester, and on-campus housing costs will increase by 25 to 50 euros, bringing the range to 925 to 1,550 euros per semester. Solely the student activity fee remains unchanged at 320 euros per semester.

The university has been conducting annual fee revisions for several years, driven largely by Bulgaria’s broader economic situation. Mileva pointed to minimum wage increases of 9 to 12 percent per year as a key factor, since a significant portion of campus staff earn close to minimum wage, which obligates the university to raise their salaries.

Adding to the financial pressure, donor support has declined significantly over the past two decades. Mileva noted that “AUBG had this level of fees already 15 years ago, volume-wise, but at that time AUBG had been supported a lot by external donors.” The university now funds 90 percent of its scholarships on its own.

She added that despite all these pressures, the AUBG has kept fee increases far below the national inflation rate during the last years.

Dilyana Mileva became Vice President of Finance and Administration at AUBG in July 2021. (Photo: American University in Bulgaria)

Still, the changes face criticism among large parts of the student body. Guram S., who is majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) and Mathematics, is frustrated with the recurring price changes: “I realized that by every year I spend here, it keeps getting more and more expensive, even though we somehow have more budget and somehow we have more students coming in who are willing to pay this money.”

Other students, like JMC and Political Science major Evelina S., felt that rises are understandable, but AUBG should “keep them the same for the students who already study here.”

Sabina Wien, Dean of Students at AUBG, stated that students are forewarned, as “information about potential increases in tuition and fees is included in the admission letters AUBG students receive.”

However, Dilyana Mileva admitted that the university’s communication on the topic could be improved. Students currently only receive a brief email summarizing the board of trustees meeting, which includes a short note that fees for 2026/27 have been adjusted and are available on the AUBG website.

In response to some students not feeling informed well enough, Mileva said “that maybe it’s a good next step to have a press release or dedicated communication on the topic of the next year tuition fees, because I do agree that everybody should have sufficient time to prepare and to make their finances for the coming year.”

Support Measures

To help students sustain an academic career at AUBG, the university offers a variety of financial support options. According to the university’s website, 92 percent of bachelor’s students receive scholarships, lowering the average tuition per semester to 4,187 euros.

Students also have the chance to apply for a student loan. While allowing students who could not otherwise afford to attend university, loans can shape life and career choices in significant ways. According to a 2018 study in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, adults with student debt are for example less likely to marry compared to debt-free peers.

Guram finances his studies completely on his own by working as a resident advisor and travelling to the United States to earn money every summer. He stated that he already felt the last increase for the 2025/26 academic year — although it was “not a drastic change,” it was “noticeable to some extent.”

Giving an outlook into the possible future of cost development for AUBG students, Dilyana Mileva said “there might be minor increases, similar to what we have seen in the last two years, about two to three percent. We are targeting not to exceed that threshold.”

Vincent Kern is a journalism student from Vienna currently completing an Erasmus semester at the American University in Bulgaria. Driven by a commitment to addressing the concerns of his peers, he wrote this report to provide clarity on the university’s evolving tuition and fee policies.