A DECISION to invest around £18 million to set up a regional research institute in conjunction with America’s Harvard University has been met with fury by private colleges, who accused the government of being indifferent in upgrading higher education on the island.
According to the agreement, expected to be signed by President Tassos Papadopoulos in Boston this week, the government will fund the institute for the environment and public health, in association with the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) over a ten-year period at a total cost of $34 million, but the institute is expected to become self-sufficient after that period.
The government will also finance the construction of the premises, the cost of which is estimated to be in the range of an extra $21 million (£10 million).
The institute will offer training and research and have direct links with regional policy-makers in the fields of environment and issues affecting public health.
Scientists from Harvard will work alongside Cypriots, postgraduate and doctorate students and other professionals from around the world, researching the latest in advanced technologies in environment and public health.
The institute will comprise laboratories, training facilities, library, computer systems and offices, providing new opportunities for research into environmental technologies and public health. Its main functions will be to provide research, training and education and consultation services.
Commerce and Industry Minister George Lillikas has branded the project as a success saying it would “give Cyprus the possibility to play a leading role in the area of the Eastern Mediterranean on matters of the environment, and public health, as the only EU country in the region.”
But the decision has outraged private colleges on the island who accused the government of being indifferent in upgrading tertiary education to university standards.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday Intercollege chairman Nicos Peristianis said the government’s decision was rash and was lacking in strategy and planning and wondered why it decided to donate £17 million to build the institute when it didn’t give a penny to local colleges.
“The decision could be seen as a good one because of Harvard’s presence on the island, but it’s not a part of a complete plan for tertiary education, a plan that we have been waiting to see for many years,” he said.
“Four years ago, the cabinet adopted a proposal to turn Cyprus into a regional and international training centre, but the move required government help to help colleges be acknowledged, to be turned into universities, to be connected with universities abroad and to receive state funding. None of this took place,” he added.
And the fact that Commerce and Industry Minister George Lillikas, who is in charge of the project is related to one of the professors at the university did little to convince observers there were no other motives.
“Imagine every minister having a cousin in a university and in order to help him a little, they create a research institute in his field,” Peristianis said.
“This should have been planned, there should be a strategy, the government should study ways of intergrading our colleges into this system.
“The problem is that they never did anything that resembled a complete plan.”
Peristianis said the government had not kept their promise to give land so that private colleges could build campuses.
“I just came from the north, where I visited the Eastern Mediterranean University, it’s a huge university, and we want 100 more years to reach that level,” he said.
“That’s because the government promoted five universities, and their smallest one is at least five times bigger than our institutes, even the University of Cyprus and they are more complete.”
