THE EDUCATION Ministry yesterday issued a warning to private tertiary-level colleges that it said had embarked on an intense advertising campaign to promote themselves as universities.
The warning comes two months after Parliament decided to allow private colleges to apply for university status. However, before they can do that, the colleges must register and be approved by the Ministry, and meet the necessary criteria.
According a statement issued by the Education Ministry yesterday, the only educational institution in Cyprus that currently has university status is the University of Cyprus.
“The legislation expressly prohibits private institutions offering third-level education from using the term ‘University’ without such institutions being registered at the Ministry of Education and Culture,” said a statement.
It said the private faculties that wished become private universities within the existing regulations should submit an application that would be examined by an evaluation committee.
“On this basis, no private faculty of third-level education has submitted an application that shows that it fills the specifications that could class it as a university,” the statement added.
“Consequently, any publicity of a private faculty that supposedly already fills the specifications of university are misleading and they will be dealt with appropriately.”
The Ministry said not only did private colleges have to register with the Ministry, but they must be evaluated by SEKAP, the Council of Educational Evaluation Certification.
It said it was monitoring violations of the law pertaining to universities.
Private colleges have battled for years to be accredited with the Education Ministry as universities, but it was only in July this year that Parliament allowed the possibility subject to the criteria, one of which is that such universities must have at least 1,500 students with a minimum of 400 students required in the first year.
Several other issues were still outstanding, however, such as the status of foreign students, hundreds of whom study at private colleges in Cyprus every year.
According to figures released yesterday, there are over 20,000 students enrolled in third-level education in Cyprus, while around 18,000 Cypriots are studying abroad, nearly 68 per cent in Greece, 16 per cent in the UK, 7 per cent in the US and the remainder in Russia and other eastern European countries.
The most popular fields of study were social sciences at 12.5 per cent, humanities, 11.7 per cent, business administration, 11.2 per cent, medicine, 10 per cent, engineering, 9 per cent and teacher training, 7 per cent.
