VUM is a Bulgarian private, not-for-profit higher education institution that was established in 1999. The university is deeply committed to the principles of internationalization. It offers undergraduate and master programmes in the fields of business, management, hospitality, tourism, business information systems and software engineering. All VUM study programmes are delivered exclusively in English and lead to the award of two degrees, namely one from VUM, and a second one from a strategic partner university of VUM located in another EU country. In 2016/2017, VUM has one of the highest international students’ rates in Bulgaria. Full-time and exchange students from nearly 50 countries across the globe are studying at VUM, and more than 25% of all VUM students are international. VUM has an extensive network of  academic partners in over 60 countries on five continents. The long-term efforts and work of VUM academic community have been also internationally recognized and validated. In 2017 in terms of student mobility and international orientation, VUM was ranked first in Central and Eastern Europe by U-Multirank.

Research areas of VUM faculty include international business, entrepreneurship, management, cross-cultural awareness and organizational behaviour, economics, marketing and tourism. Further to conventional education, VUM provides also opportunities for lifelong learning and continuous education. The business school is closely linked with the local business community and civil society through various mechanisms for collaboration, including teaching, input in the curriculum design and applied research. VUM was the project coordinating institution of the Leading and Managing Change in Higher Education (La MANCHE) Tempus IV project, which focused on capacity building in the field of leadership and university governance.

Christina Armutlievа is BEEHIVE Project Coordinator and Director of International Cooperation at VUM. She holds an MA in Hungarian Language and Literature, in and Finno-Ugrian Linguistics from the University of Debrecen in Hungary. Prior to starting working for VUM, Christina had worked for 6 years as lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Debrecen. Christina joined the team of VUM is 2008 and since then she has been coordinating the academic mobility projects and the International Cooperation Department activities at VUM. In the period of 2012-2015, she was the Project Coordinator of the above mentioned La MANCHE project, which involved 28 universities from 10 European Countries.