Cyprus University to expand entrance criteria

Minister of Education and Culture Andreas Demetriou has said that the state Universities of Cyprus plan to introduce new admission standards for students of minority communities and Cypriot repatriates.

Cyprus has three official religious minorities – Maronite, Armenians and Latin communities plus many repatriates returning home from the UK, Australia and the US.
Asked to comment on press information that GCE examinations will be part of the admission criteria for students, the Minister said that the two state Universities, the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus University of Technology decided to expand their admission criteria in order to give the opportunity to Cypriot repatriates, students of minorities as well as other candidate students who do not enter the Universities through the pancyprian examinations, to be admitted to the state Universities.
He clarified that the number of the aforementioned students’ categories would be for the University of Cyprus 10% of the total students’ number and for the Cyprus University of Technology 3%.
“We have to respect the Universities’ autonomy to decide on the criteria for admission”, he said, adding that it is not a matter which concerns the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The Minister added that the new admission standards do not require the approval on behalf of the House of Representatives.
“There is a legislative provision in the University’s establishment law which says that the admission of students is a matter which falls within the competence of the University”, he concluded.