The Technical University of Sofia () is Bulgaria's largest and foremost academic establishment for higher engineering education. The university is a state-owned entity with academic self-governance. Founded on 15 October 1945 as part of the Higher Technical School (later renamed to State Polytechnic), it has been an independent institution since 1953, when the Polytechnic was divided into four separate technical institutes. It has had its present name and university status since 21 July 1995 and has 14 main faculties based in Sofia, Plovdiv and Sliven, as well as 3 additional ones with education only in foreign languages — German, English and French. History With Decree No 237, published in the State Gazette issue 248 from 24.10.1945, of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, a school called "State Polytechnic" is created with Mechanical engineering faculty with four divisions - mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and mining and geology. In 1953, the State Polytechnic was split into four new higher institutes, one of which was the Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. It had two faculties - one of mechanical and one of electrical engineering. Two years later, in 1955, the word "Higher" was added to the name. In 1959, a faculty of Transport and Communications was formed which four years later (in 1963) was split into Faculty of Transport (existing until today) and Faculty of Radio Electronics. The last was split into three in 1987 - Faculty of Electronic Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Telecommunications and Faculty of Computer Systems and Control all existing today. Some of the staff of the newly formed Faculty of Computer Systems and Control used to previously work in the Faculty of Automatics, which was separated from the faculty of Electrical Engineering in 1974. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering was only split once, in 1963, when two new faculties - of Machine Technology and of Power Engineering and Power Machines, were formed from it. In 1991, the faculty of Management was formed. Since 1991 the Higher Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering was renamed to Technical University of Sofia. The Technical University of Sofia is one of the eight holders of the European University of Technology, EUt+, with the Riga Technical University (Latvia), the Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), the Hochschule Darmstadt, University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the Technological University Dublin (Ireland), the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (Spain), the University of Technology of Troyes (France), the Technological University