New board for Open University

THE OPEN University is seeing a new Interim Governing Board after a prolonged discussion on whether the term for the previous board would be extended beyond its March 31 deadline. The new board will take over on April 1 and its term will span for three years unless the university becomes autonomous before then.

The board’s previous president, Panos Razis, had come under fire for dragging out his term for the past eight years. Opposition DISY had proposed to extend the IGC’s term for another year but the move was deemed unconstitutional by the Attorney-general and was rejected.

The Education Minister recently called for Razis’ resignation saying that disputes and spats “had created a divisive spirit.”

Razis yesterday accused the Minister of “hypocrisy, mockery of education and lack of political integrity” saying there was a rush to bring in a new board without allowing for “the necessary transitory period.”

“The Open University is at a critical juncture and a change of management would bring about a battery of administrative problems”, Razis said earlier this year. “The timing is wrong… procedures and processes will be left in the middle and personal networks will be lost if the board changes now,” Razis said.

New president, University of Cyprus’ mathematician, Costas Christou said that the new board includes experienced, knowledgeable academics who are capable of taking on their new task.

“Our primary task is to make the university autonomous within the next three years,” Christou said.

The Open University is a semi-government organisation and receives state funding.

It was allocated €7.2 in 2011, more than €2 million less than what the university itself had asked for.

Christou said they would be aiming to increase their 2012 funding so that their goal of autonomy would be met.

“I’m leaving with my head held high and my conscience clear that I’ve delivered a worthy university,” Razis yesterday 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.