News

AKEL’s United Democratic Youth Organisation, EDON, said yesterday it was deeply concerned with the Education Ministry’s inaction regarding fee increases at private universities.

“The Education Ministry has so far refused to take a clear position on the issue and to intervene substantially to protect students,” the youth group said.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference yesterday, EDON general secretary Christos Christofides called on the ministry to take a “clear and definite position” on the issue of private university fees and to give up its “neutral, Pontius Pilate attitude”.

He also called on the organised student movement and students who are already at or will attend the new universities to “fight against profiteering and to secure their rights”.

He said EDON considered the Education Ministry’s attitude raised wider questions regarding tertiary education.

“Why the insistence to dramatically reduce the number of places at the University of Cyprus’ Education Sciences department from 150 to 50? An insistence from the President of the Republic himself so as to supposedly avoid creating qualified individuals who can’t be placed, when today there are approved departments at private institutions that offer such degrees. Do we not perhaps realise that in this way we are depriving students of a place at the University of Cyprus and are pushing them towards private institutions. We were in disagreement with this position then and are now,” Christofides said.

The EDON general secretary also questioned why the government had so far failed to found a medical school as well as other schools in an effort to expand public tertiary education, as was the coalition government’s clear commitment.

“And why has the new Cyprus Technology University started running with only half of the departments from those recommended by the temporary administrative committee, since the need to extend tertiary education in Cyprus is something more than clear?” he said.

Christofides added that it was EDON’s belief that during this critical evaluation period of private universities, the Education Ministry could play a vital role on the level of tuition fees, but that it had failed to do so.

He said: “The Education Ministry’s position on tuition fees was very delayed and was totally neutral. This position, we are sorry to say, is at very least inadequate.”

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.