By Charlie Charalambous
SHIPPING tycoon Loucas Hadjioannou wants the law changed to enable the University of London to open an international business school in his beloved Pedhoulas.
Previous efforts by Hadjioannou, 72, to establish a university in Pedhoulas have failed, but he is now pushing for the law preventing foreign universities from issuing degrees in Cyprus to be scrapped.
The wealthy Cypriot, affectionately known as the “King of Tankers”, has written to President Clerides calling for his support.
Hadjioannou’s efforts to regenerate Pedhoulas and the wider Marathasa region have been boosted by the University of London, which has provided a letter of intent to create an international business school there.
The proposed name of the school would be the Royal Holloway International Business School of Cyprus, Hadjioannou Campus, University of London.
But this cannot be realised unless the current law governing education institutions is amended.
“We think the law can be changed, otherwise he wouldn’t be pushing for it,” Hadjioannou’s spokesman George Georgiades told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“The University of London is willing to undertake the running of the school by providing the teaching expertise and finding the students,” he added.
Hadjioannou, who owns one of the biggest independent tanker fleets, has put up $6 million to help finance the project by providing the necessary buildings and facilities.
The Pedhoulas secondary school has already undergone extensive improvements in preparation for its possible use as a university site.
It is estimated the business school could be up and running by 1999, with an initial intake of 200 students from Cyprus and abroad.
“The University of London said it will undertake the running of the school for at least ten years and Mr Hadjioannou will inject some working capital for the first three or four years,” said Georgiades.
The university issue was raised by Hadjioannou when he met Clerides two weeks ago.
It is understood that Clerides gave some positive indications about the possibility of offering Hadjioannou a branch of the Cyprus University for his home village of Pedhoulas.
Georgiades said that Hadjioannou had received promises in the past about setting up a Cyprus University department in Pedhoulas.
“This fell through, but as anyone who knows Mr Hadjioannou will tell you, he never gives up.”
It is understood that the tycoon would accept a branch of the Cyprus University at Pedhoulas as an alternative to the business school venture.
