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The International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC) is an annual mathematics competition open to all undergraduate students of mathematics. Participating students are expected to be at most twenty three year of age. There is no minimum age requirement. It is held at the end of July or beginning of August. The IMC is primarily a competition for individuals, although most participating universities select and send one or more teams of students of approximately four student per team, plus one or more Team Leaders. Students coming on their own, or in a group without a Team Leader, are welcome and encouraged to participate.
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The IMC is a residential competition and all student participants are required to stay in the accommodation provided by the organisers. It aims to provide a friendly, comfortable and secure environment for university mathematics students to enjoy mathematics with their peers from all around the world, to broaden their world perspective and to be inspired to set mathematical goals for themselves that might not have been previously imaginable or thought possible. Winning a Prize at the IMC is commonly added to CVs when students apply to PhD programs around the world. Past participants have gone on to become Professors of Mathematics in some of the leading universities around the world.
University College London has been involved in the organisation of the IMC and Prof J E Jayne has served as the President from the beginning in 1994. The IMC runs over five or six days during which the competitors sit two five-hour examinations, each with five questions (six until 2008) chosen by a panel and representatives from the participating universities. Problems are from the fields of Algebra, Analysis (Real and Complex), Combinatorics and Geometry. The working language is English. Efforts have been made to make accessibility as wide as possible; the costs of the IMC have been subsidised by a number of different sponsors over the years, some of whom have recruited participants for summer internships while at university and jobs after completing university. Students from over 200 universities from over 50 countries have participated over the first twenty three competitions.
The IMC began modestly in 1994 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with 49 participants, mostly from Bulgaria, under the initiative of the Faculty of Mathematics of Sofia University. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th IMC were also held in Plovdiv. From 1996 to 1999 the IMC was one of the activities of the Structural Joint European Tempus Project #S_JEP-11087-96, entitled "Modular Education in Mathematics and Informatics", which was the flagship EU Tempus Project in Bulgaria at the time, aimed at bringing Bulgaria's university mathematics and computing degree programs into line with those in the European Union in preparation for Bulgaria's entry into the EU. University College London was the Contractor for this EU Tempus Project and Prof J E Jayne was the Coordinator of the Project. In 1998 the 5th IMC was moved to Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, benefiting from the excellent administrative support and facilities of both the South-West University "Neofit Rilski" in Blagoevgrad and the American University in Bulgaria. The 5th IMC had 80 participants from 9 countries.
The 6th IMC was held on Lake Balaton in Keszthely, Hungary, the 7th in London, the 8th in Prague, the 9th in Warsaw, the 10th In Cluj-Napoca, Romania, the 11th in Skopje, Macedonia, the 12th in Blagoevgrad, the 13th in Odessa, the 14th and 15th in Blagoevgrad, and the 16th in Budapest. In 2009 the 16th IMC had 347 participants and 65 teams. Since 2009 the IMC has been held at the American University in Bulgaria, in Blagoevgrad, with the additional assistance from the South-West University "Neofit Rilski" in Blagoevgrad.
Bulgaria is a relatively easily reachable location in Central Europe for the majority of participating universities. Blagoevgrad is a pleasant university town, one of the nicest in Bulgaria, where the American University in Bulgaria economically provides modern Halls of Residence, good dining facilities, and the large examination halls required by the IMC. The growth of the IMC has increased the administrative complexity, and the experienced support team that the IMC has in Blagoevgrad is invaluable.
The IMC could not have experienced the success that it has without the dedicated hard work year after year for the past 10 to 15 years of many individuals, especially Géza and Rita Kós, Michał Krych, Masha Vlasenko, Anton Millet,Tamas Keleti, Dmytro Mitin, Marjan Jerman, Djordje Milicevic, Slavcho Shtrakov, Chrisina Jayne, among many others.