The forestry college is to reopen in January, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou said on Wednesday, with its first intake of students scheduled for September next year.
Panayiotou was speaking after a cabinet meeting and was quick to point out the problems caused by the college’s initial closure in 2015.
“The suspension of the study programme at the forestry college in 2015 as a result of the financial crisis was one of the reasons which contributed to the forestry department’s understaffing,” she said.
With this in mind, she said the college was being reopened as the government “has as our priority the protection and preservation of the forests and the strengthening of the forestry department’s operational readiness”.
Forestry college students will upon graduation obtain a “higher diploma in forestry”. The diploma programme lasts three years and was accredited by the Cyprus Agency for Quality Assurance and Certification of Higher Education (Dipae) in June.
Panayiotou said on Wednesday that cabinet had also approved a motion for the forestry college to be “enriched” with other programmes, which will be aimed at non-governmental organisations, village authorities, and private citizens.
It is expected that the college will take on between 10 and 15 students per year for its higher diploma programme. Applicants will sit entrance exams, and once accepted onto the programme, they will be taught a range of different skills related to forestry.
These skills include dealing with forest fires, forest administration, road construction, forest epidemiology and virology, botany, and various other issues related to forestry and forest management.
Plans to reopen the college had won the approval of the forestry branch of civil servants’ trade union Asdyk.
They said last year that the move was “a step in the right direction” and added that they “hope it will become a springboard for more developments in the future”.
They added that the move will “greatly boost the forestry department’s abilities and reinvigorate local communities”.
They also said they hope the college could potentially be upgraded to a higher education facility in the future, with the ultimate goal that it be integrated into the Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak).
The forestry college building is located in the village of Prodromos, in the Troodos mountain range.
