Students back down in fee dispute

STUDENTS moved to break the deadlock at the Cyprus University yesterday, with the Union of Postgraduate Students announcing they would pay part of their tuition fees to register for the coming academic year.

Postgraduate students had been refusing to pay tuition fees, arguing that they were discriminated against since undergraduates at the university receive free education.

But in yesterday’s announcement, the postgraduates said they agreed to pay at least £500 to enrol, as required by the university.

The announcement went on to say that this was a “temporary settlement”, and that the students would continue their “struggle for free education.”

Tuition fees for the postgraduate programme stand at about £2,000 a year. The university has about 100 postgraduates.

The compromise comes on the eve of the start of the academic year on Monday, averting the danger that this year’s postgraduate programme might have had to be scrapped.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.