• Academician Cvetan Grozdanov - Doctor Honoris Causa of Sofia University
• The Leading Surgeon in Liver Transplantation was Conferred the Title Doctor Honoris Causa

On March 24, at a solemn ceremony in St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University the world famous Prof. Christoph Erich Broelsch was conferred the title Doctor Honoris Causa.

• On March 26, Prof. Alexander Anchevski, Rector of St. St. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopie, was awarded the high distinction of Sofia University – Honorary Insignia with a Blue Ribbon

Ina Popova, Miss Cambridge 2003, is walking on the steep road to International Law

Ina, Cambridge is one of the most prestigious universities but it is definitely not a school for models. How did it happen that you were declared “most beautiful” exactly there?
In 2003, the university decided to organize for the first time a charity fashion show with the aim to assist socially disadvantaged and disabled children. No such reviews were organized before, perhaps, because they were not viewed as a serious initiative. Or (she is laughing) because people think that since we study too much, we are not beautiful by default. There was a notice in the students’ newspaper, inviting all boys and girls willing to participate to send their pictures. I read the ad and forgot all about it. However, in the day of the shooting I happened to be near the place the pictures were taken and the photographer, a third-year student from the university, talked me into making a photograph of myself. The evaluation procedure was held in two stages. First, the pictures were published in the newspaper and our fellow students had to give their vote – that is how they declared me to be the most beautiful. Next, a special jury of fashion journalists and experts was formed. That is how I received the special support of Nicolas Coleridge, whose opinion, naturally, has special influence, and the support of many other renowned experts in the sphere.

How many people made it to the final?
20 girls and 20 boys.

What was their nationality? There are many international students in Cambridge.
I was the only foreigner, the rest were English.

I learned from your parents that after the event your phone was constantly ringing. Prestigious English media were requesting special interviews from you on their pages.
The press really showed great interest. Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, and London Evening Standard covered the event, the Hello Magazine dedicated four pages to it. A London photographer included my pictures in an electronic gallery. The attention and the interest as a whole were high.

Did your big success on the “cat walk” tempt you to develop in this direction?
A second Cambridge Fashion Show edition was held at the end of this winter but I decided I would rather not participate although my involvement in the last year’s edition proved to be both very useful and amusing. It put me in front of a new trial – between my new self-confidence and my humbleness. I think I learned lessons, which need no confirmation.

Do you have an attitude to fashion? This is a global dictator, which can give you wings but may also put you in chains?
Fashion styles are constantly changing. There are things I like and things I do not like, but I don’t just blindly follow the fashion. This is also valid for most of the other students. I notice that people in the streets wear very often t-shirts with the label of an expensive brand shop. What is more, people seem to think this is prestigious. People at my university are not so stupid as to be enslaved by fashion labels. I like myself clad in jeans, pullover, tailored shirts… I do not have a liking for orotund things.

What was your road to Trinity College?
I was six, when my family moved to live and work in England. My parents are engineers, former employees of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. They tell me I picked up English very quickly. I also speak French, Spanish and Italian fluently. I have an exam in German I will have to pass. I study the language under a university programme, which is aimed, with 5 hours of teaching and 6 hours of homework in week, to raise the level of the beginners to the level of the students in German philology. It is a very intensive programme but this is exactly what I like about it. I am progressing well and I hope I will be able to speak German fluently as well. I study English Law in Cambridge. I became a student at the age of 16 because at school I was two years ahead of my coevals. I had a special preparation for the entry exams in the college and in addition to these exams I also had two interviews. I had an exam in French Law as well. I am currently graduating from my education in England and I will be going to Paris in the autumn.

I guess you are very excited?
The less time I have left till September, the more excited I get. I will be starting a new life in a totally different environment and with a different approach to all things in life. My excellent results in my French Law exam indicate the importance I attach to the subject. The knowledge of the two law systems – the English and the French, proves to be a helpful skill, which can contributes to a varied and flexible approach when finding solutions to problem situations. Any jurist, skilful in these two styles, can easily acquire new ideas and is more often able to form his own original point of view. Maybe that is why for me it is sometimes difficult to accept that a precedent in the English law is irrefutable.