TWO-thirds of Cypriot students choosing to study abroad opt for Greece, while only 20 per cent go to the UK, and five per cent to the US.
The information is no surprise in light of the fact that three-quarters of the island’s children attend Greek speaking state schools, and links with mainland Greece remain very high.
The findings were published by the Statistical Services in their annual Education Statistics report for the 2004/2005 school year.
The report provides detailed information regarding the number of educational institutions, pupils/students, teaching and non-teaching personnel and expenditure at each level of education, as well as Cypriot students abroad.
According to the report, the most popular fields of study were social and behavioural sciences (12.1 per cent), humanities (11 per cent), business and administration (11.8 per cent), health (10.4 per cent), engineering (9.7 per cent), teacher training and education (7.2 per cent) and computing (5.7 per cent).
The top six countries in order of preference for further education were Greece (65.3 per cent), United Kingdom (20.4 per cent), USA (5.1 per cent), Bulgaria (2.7 per cent), Hungary (1.3 per cent), Russian Federation (0.9 per cent) and Germany (0.8 per cent).
Other main points in the report include:
At all levels of education, there were 1,254 educational institutions, 174,018 pupils and 14,432 teachers, giving a pupil/teacher ratio of 12:1.
Of the total number of students, 75.5 per cent were enrolled in public schools and 24.5 per cent in private schools.
The enrolments of students by level of education were as follows: pre-primary 27,028, primary 61.247, secondary 65,274, tertiary 20,078 and special education 391.
Meanwhile 19,400 students went abroad to study during the period 2004/2005, 909 of whom attended non-university tertiary establishments, 16,464 enrolled for undergraduate university courses, 1,668 for Master’s course and 359 started PhDs.
Finally, public expenditure on public and private education for 2004 stood at £499.3 million for all levels, with the current public cost per pupil in public schools standing at £2,412 for pre-primary, £1,987 for primary, £14,692 for special needs children, £3,644 for secondary education and £6,965 for tertiary education. The cost per student abroad was £2,098.
The report is available from the Government Printing Office for £8 per copy and free of charge in electronic form, on the website of the Statistical Service under the section Publications.
