TWO of Cyprus’ leading higher education institutions have flung their doors wide open to pupils from private schools.
The University of Cyprus (UCy) and the Technical University of Cyprus (TEPAK) have decided that ten per cent and three per cent of their places, respectively, will be reserved for pupils who do not take the entrance exams but have otherwise taken international accredited exams.
These include the GCEs and the International Baccalaureate examinations.
The decision will be implemented in the upcoming academic year, but it has not been well received by the teacher’s trade union (OELMEK) for fear of dangers that it may pose to public education.
The Dean of the University of Cyprus Stavros Zenios said such concerns were unwarranted and there was in fact no danger to public education.
The scheme will give access to more pupils than it currently is, providing incentives to stay in Cyprus to study instead of going abroad.
“It is high time we started offering positions to students who are in private schools, children of foreign diplomats, Armenians, Latins, Maronites, and overseas Cypriots,” Zenios asserted.
He went on to highlight that the scheme applies to one out of every ten positions.
“Only 10 per cent of those accepted will be on the basis international exams, which translates into approximately 100 positions.
“Therefore, 90 per cent will enter only via entrance exams.”
Zenios pointed out that, “13 per cent of Cypriot students study at private schools”, suggesting that the plan is inherently informed by a sense of fairness.
“Of course, the door was open to private school pupils before. But this was more in theory, than in practice.
“When you’re studying for six years and being prepped for international exams, it is not logical that you could succeed in the pancyprian entrance exams”, the UCy Dean explained.
OELMEK president George Skalias argued that it is not the percentage of students who will be admitted from the private schools that concerns him, but the possibility admittance will not be on an equal level.
“We have to examine if the competition will be on equal terms, but I’m afraid that it won’t be.
“This is not about percentages, but about equal opportunity to secure positions.
“We only found out about this measure from the Saturday press,” he complained.
“We will be requesting for a meeting with the Education Minister and the authorities of the universities, before we take a stance.
“OELMEK’s mandate is to protect public schools.”
Zenios did not share Skalias’ concerns about unequal terms of admittance.
“We examined this issue very carefully, so that the difficulty of entrance exams and the international exams alike are on parity.
“We don’t want the new measure to be a ‘back door’ into the university: therefore our requirements will be on a par with what those of the entrance exams,” he said.
A student cannot be judged on both criteria, however.
“If a student satisfies both criteria, s/he must choose which criterion s/he will be judged on. Choosing to be judged on both criteria is not an option.”
“We will soon publish a booklet explaining the decision to students,” Zenios said.
Education Minister Andreas Demetriou, the former head of TEPAK, said that the decision is the University’s to make.
“The institutions under discussion want to widen the field of students they accept, so as to give a real opportunity to pupils who would not enter the university otherwise.
“It concerns a very small number of pupils, so I do not think that a serious problem will be created,” the Minister assumed.
Significantly, the measure does not require approval by the House of Representatives.
“We have to acknowledge the autonomy of UCy as concerns its student intake,” said Demetriou.
He added that, “public schools will always have our full support. It is our policy and the politics of this government to upgrade public education.”
Private schools are set to meet today to share their thoughts and formulate policies on the new directive.
The Grammar School’s headmaster Andreas Mios welcomed the decision: “We would very much like this to happen,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
“We have a few students who would benefit from the opportunity to enter the University of Cyprus with A-levels alone, such as repatriated students.”
Mios emphasised that, even though the scheme will make things easier for private school pupils, “we’ve had students in the past who chose to go to the university irrespectively of whether they had to do the entrance exams, and they performed well academically once they were there.”
