By decree of the Council of Ministers dated 26st September, 1954 , The Faculty of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture of the Agricultural Academy in Sofia became an independent higher school under the name "Higher Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture" (HIMEA) and moved to Ruse. The department "Agricultural Machinery" (AM) was established, and in the first 1954/1955 academic year Professor Boris Iliev was assigned to it as the Head of the Department and the regular assistant engineer Stefan Stanev. Until 1957 the regular members of the department grew to four, and Ivan Nikolov Georgiev, who had returned from Moscow, became its head. At that time, the academic disciplines "Agriculture" and "Animal Husbandry" were included in the Agricultural Machinery Department. In the first academic year, 337 students, divided into four courses, were studying at HIMEA.
