Plovdiv University, named in honor of the Bulgarian historian Paisii Hilendarski (known as Saint Paisius of Hilendar in English), is the city’s leading cultural and scientific institution.

In 1945 the University of Plovdiv was inaugurated by a Decree of the Regents’ Council of August the 4th, promulgated the same year in the State Gazette of August 20, structured in two faculties: Medicine and Agriculture and Forestry,[1] which in July 1961 was reorganized as Higher Teacher-Training Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.

Today the University of Plovdiv is a true university by international standards, since it provides training to students in the four major fields of higher education: natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and economics.

Over 7,500 full-time and 5,000 part-time students are enrolled in the programs and courses by the university’s nine faculties.

The university also comprises a Technical College in Smolyan as well as two branches outside of Plovdiv: a Smolyan branch, successor to the Teacher Training Institute opened in 1962 as part of the old Bulgarian tradition in teacher training, and a branch in Kardzhali, successor of semi-Pedagogical Institute "L.Karavelov" - Kardzhali founded in 1961.