HTI anger at minister’s move

STAFF at the Higher Technical Institute (HTI) staff are to meet next week to decide on what action they will take after Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas overturned an academic council decision on the extension of the academic year.

Moushiouttas had earlier proposed that students have a week of extra lessons in order to make up time they had missed due to recent protests.

But at a meeting on Thursday, the minister said he was not bound by the academic council decisions on the matter, after disagreements over specifics led to a breakdown in talks. Student representatives walked out of the meeting in protest.

The institute’s staff are now considering a boycott of all HTI academic bodies to mark their anger at the minister’s decision.

As well as the extra time, the council had proposed that students be given a second chance to pass exams missed due to strike action in April.

The extra time allowance would also over-ride truancy regulation problems for the picketing students, who under normal circumstances would have forfeited their certificates for taking more than a certain number of days off lessons.

The students have been demanding higher recognition of their graduation diplomas and the creation of a specific public sector post for HTI graduates.

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