University of National and World Economy is the largest and also the eldest higher educational institution of Economics in Bulgaria and South-eastern Europe and it has a history of 96 years. University originates from the Free University of Political and Economic Sciences (FUPES) established by Order № 2155 of July, 5th, 1920 of the Minister of national education. There are 8 faculties at the UNWE in the field of economics, management, law, mass media. There are also 34 Departments, Divisions for educational degree of Master of Science and Institute of Post-Graduate Qualification; Center for Distance Learning, Institute for Economic Politics, Institute of Entrepreneurship, Center for Intellectual Property (the only one in Bulgaria), Inter-University Center for Career Development, etc. The total number of enrolled students in bachelor, master and doctoral degree is 28 000 (2016/2017 academic year). There are more than 500 lecturers at the UNWE and 285 of them are Professors and Associate Professors.

The university provides education in bachelor, master and doctoral programs, having joint programs with foreign universities.

Within the UNWE there is an Institute for Postgraduate Studies (IPS) which offers vocational and educational training that aims at developing methods and tools for identifying and validating competences in the workplace and opening gateways to education and training to make it easier for low qualified individuals to develop their competences, and by that secure their position on the labour market. Also the IPS offers two year programs especially designed for students , that gives them more deep and detailed knowledge in certain area (respectively ProjectManagement, Human Resources, Bank Management, etc.)