Forces joined in university fight

Public school pupils and teachers yesterday decided to join forces in a bid to rescind the University of Cyprus’ (UCy) decision to accept students with international accreditations.
The aim is to create a coordinated body that will be occupied solely with the issue and more specifically, with changing the UCy decision.

The university’s announcement to accept a small number of students in the next academic year based on international exams, such as GCEs, instead of the Cypriot leaving certificate was discussed in a meeting that took place at the public teachers’ union (OELMEK) offices and at the suggestion of PSEM, the pupils’ union.

OELMEK head Georgios Skalias said the meeting had been “fruitful and productive” and announced that a new meeting would be held this Tuesday at 6 pm.

“During this meeting we will examine further the stance that will be taken against this decision by the University of Cyprus,” said Skalias. He added that there was a strong desire for the creation of a coordinated body to examine the issue.

Organised parents, the student federation POFEN and the teachers’ organisation POED will also be present at Tuesday’s meeting.

Asked if any measures had been decided during yesterday’s meeting to pressurise UCy into recalling its decision, Skalias said this had been discussed.
“The measures will need to be examined in depth so that they can serve the reason for which they were imposed,” he explained.

He added, however, that “part of Tuesday’s meeting will be dedicated to how we can move dynamically in a bid to deal effectively with the decision by the University of Cyprus”.
PSEM President Christos Makris said he hoped the coordinated body would be created this Tuesday, “so that it can become a common battlefront against the plans that the University is trying to promote, which will enslave public education”.

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.