Education Minister submits bill regulating arrival of foreign university branches

Education Minister Athena Michaelidou presented an amended version of the bill regulating foreign universities that want to open branches in Cyprus.

Attending the House Education Committee anew, Michaelidou said the ultimate aim is to ensure quality of education with the introduction of stricter criteria, with the Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education (CyQAA) put in charge of assessing all applications submitted by foreign universities.

Just ahead of parliament’s summer recess, the Education Ministry submitted the original bill, only to be harshly criticised by MPs for being "ill-prepared", with some even calling it "sloppy".

Three months on, the minister returned this week with a revised bill, clarifying that while the law for opening foreign universities in Cyprus already exists, the amendments proposed in the bill have to do with tightening the controls that are in place.

Referring to the changes, Michaelidou said: “The assessment using strict criteria is clear and in line with European countries. One criterion is that the mother university must be fully recognised in the country that it operates; with an operating licence from said country’s authorities and be on the list of Tertiary Education institutions. We are doing this to ensure quality.”

A second criterion, she said, is that applying univeristies must have at least three academies for the application to be accepted.

“CyQAA will have the ability to reject an application, if the branch is of a lower rank than our own institutes,” the minister explained.

Representatives of the public and private universities were also in attendance at the House, with all generally agreeing that the assessment criteria in the bill are unclear and that they need to be aligned with those that apply to the existing universities.