Education ministry battling with MPs over English-language courses at UCy

Eight years after they were first mooted, courses at the University of Cyprus in languages other than Greek have proven divisive as the education ministry works to tie up loose ends and MPs argue about how much to charge.

The education ministry is awaiting comments on a bill that will pave the way for the introduction of undergraduate programmes at the University of Cyprus (UCy) with English instruction.

The bill also allows for universities abroad to open branches in Cyprus.

According to the bill, the English-language courses will not be free, with the cabinet deciding the fees, as well as the number of students to be taken on.

Since 2016, when the issue arose, parliament has presented diverse opinions on the charging of fees, with political parties voicing objections to a public university charging any.

MPs do not agree on whether fees should be charged, let alone how much to charge.

The education ministry has clarified that the state cannot take on the cost of English language courses as well and for this reason has requested that a fee be charged, UCy rector Tasos Christofides told Politis.

He said some MPs believe the courses in English should also be free to attract foreign students.

His personal view is that the university should charge for these courses but be cheaper than private universities.

Christofides said it was an injustice that foreign universities could do this, but Cyprus’ public universities were chained to bureaucratic procedures, which did not allow for fair competition.

The bill stipulates that fees will be determined depending on the actual cost at the time and students will be informed beforehand how much they will have to pay for the whole course.

Students at public universities will not be able to transfer from courses in Cyprus’ official languages to courses in another language or vice versa.

A couple of changes will also be made to courses in Cyprus’ official languages – Greek and Turkish – namely that fees are to be presented in euros instead of pounds, fees are paid by the education ministry for Cypriot and EU students and the fees for undergraduate programmes will be decided by the cabinet.