Akel have put forward a bill which would ensure that undergraduate programmes taught in foreign languages at Cyprus’ public universities are free of charge for students.

The matter was discussed at Wednesday’s meeting of the House education committee, with Akel MP Christos Christofides warning after the meeting that if the bill is not passed into law, “two categories of students will be created”.

One category, he said, will be Cypriot students who pay tuition fees, and the other will be Cypriot students who do not. He argued that should this come to pass, “the quality of Greek-language programmes will be degraded”.

Committee chairman and Diko MP Pavlos Mylonas said Akel’s bill will be discussed at the committee’s next meeting and added that it is his intention to put the bill to a vote in a plenary session before the summer recess.

Otherwise, he said, the discussion on the matter will continue in September.

Disy MP George Karoullas said “some safeguards” must be put in place regarding the realisation of such programmes.

Those safeguards, he said, should include “ensuring the number of places offered in the Republic’s official languages”, Greek and Turkish, and ensuring that foreign-language programmes, primarily in English, have equivalents in one of Cyprus’ two official languages.

However, independent MP Andreas Themistocleous said that “the needs of foreign students studying in Cyprus are covered by the 150 Greek-language and 270 foreign-language programmes offered by the 14 private universities in Cyprus”.

He added that “most of the foreign students coming to Cyprus are Greeks who will return to Greece when private universities are established in their own country”.

Additionally, he said, if English-language programmes are offered at the University of Cyprus, “this will lead in the future to the weakening and final degeneration of Greek-language programmes at public universities”.

He then added that if foreign-language programmes are allowed to go ahead at Cypriot public universities, “the owners of English-language private schools will wave it at greedy customers”, and that “public schools will be very seriously undermined”.

University of Cyprus rector Tasos Christofides told the committee that it is “time to move forward, to give public universities the right to keep pace with the rest of the universities in Europe”.

“I do not understand how public schools would be undermined by the introduction of foreign-language programmes at Cypriot universities but yet are not undermined by foreign-language programmes which are being taught at branches of Greek universities which are going to open,” he said.

“In no case do we want to limit the number of Greek-language programmes or the number of students. At the same time, however, we cannot be fixated and not offer foreign-language programmes.”