Tuition fees bill ready, says minister

EDUCATION Minister Andreas Demetriou yesterday confirmed that the Legal Services have sent him a draft bill on the tuition fees of private universities.

He said the bill provides that private universities are obliged to submit details of the tuition fee to the Ministry for approval six months before the beginning of the academic year.

“The bill is ready and will be submitted to the cabinet following a discussion with all stakeholders within this month,” Demetriou said yesterday while visiting the University of Cyprus.

“This is one of the main provisions and the universities will be obliged to inform students of the exact amounts they will have to pay from the beginning to the end of their studies,” Demetriou added.

The Minister confirmed that as of yesterday private university owners had not received copies of the bill, but said they would soon be informed of all provisions. The amended version of the law assigns greater power to the Minister, he said.

Demetriou also emphatically denied ever saying that current fees were reasonable, as was reported in the media. “I have never said that. No, I never said I find tuition fees to be reasonable. I understand that for students, particularly if they come from less privileged families, tuition fees are high,” he said.

The purpose of Demetriou’s visit to the University of Cyprus was to discuss the student welfare package offered by the state. “The process is moving ahead very well both in public and in private universities, and students are expressing the interest that we expected them to. We hope that as time passes we will be able to expand these measures,’ he said.

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.