Higher degrees in Bulgaria are suspended temporarily because of a new law which opposition MPs say will lead to the "recommunisation of higher learning".

The law repeals an Act of December 1992 banning former Communist Party officials from senior posts in the academic establishment, including membership of the Supreme Commission for Academic Awards, the government-appointed validation body for higher degrees.

Under communism anyone wishing to make their career in science or scholarship was virtually obliged to be a member of the ruling party. By the time they had reached a senior post it was highly likely they would hold some minor office within the party.

The 1992 law deprived a number of senior figures of their posts in the workplace. It also barred from decision-making positions a number of younger scholars, who in their youth had been party activists, and who, after losing their illusions about communism, tried to work for democracy and reform from within.

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In the parliamentary election campaign last autumn, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the old Communists in a new, democratic incarnation, pledged that, if returned, they would repeal the 1992 law. On December 19, the BSP won the election and within two months the law was repealed.

Not only did this make the 1992 Act invalid but has led to the dissolution of all of the commissions that review the work and CVs of aspirants for higher degrees in the various academic disciplines.

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The prime minister is now appointing new commissions and will presumably include in them at least some of the scholars excluded for the past two years.

He is expected to complete this task within a month. But even if he meets this deadline, and in Bulgaria these tend to be elastic, degree validation could be delayed further if the new SCAA and its commissions decide to start from the beginning and review all "cases" in the pipeline.

As obtaining a higher degree means an automatic rise, the delay may mean a lot of unhappy academics. Parliament clearly wants to minimise the shake-up in the academic world and has set October 30 as the deadline for appointments or reappointments of ex-communist academics.