Education ministry joins forces with UK’s Bolton uni on scholarship programme

The education ministry has joined forces with the University of Bolton to set up a scholarship programme that will offer 250 scholarships, an important development in the post-Brexit environment, Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou said on Friday. 

Under the Pathway Scholarship programme, scholarships will be offered every year until September 2025, giving annually up to 250 students from Cyprus the opportunity to pay reduced fees while studying at the University of Bolton, thereby  facilitating access as EU nationals lose their eligibility for home fee status. 

The scheme is being combined with a scholarship in memory of Captain Nikolaos Katountas who was killed in action during the Turkish invasion of 1974. 

“I would like to warmly thank the University of Bolton and particularly professor, president and vice chancellor George E Holmes, as well as Aris Matheou, executive director of the university,” the minister, who was awarded an honorary PhD from the university, said. 

He also thanked Dr Elias Foutsis who took the initiative to set up Nikolaos Katountas Memorial Scholarship and for it to be combined with the Cyprus Minister of Education Scholarship Programme. 

Prodromou’s press conference touched on a number of other issues, including the return of secondary school pupils to class and language teaching.  He said that as planned, the ministry was this year activating its cooperation with the University of Cambridge to certify English-language learning at B2 level for graduates of public high schools. 

Implementation is starting with a pilot programme at 26 schools with 1250 pupils who will take the PET and IGCE exams (B1 and B2 under the six reference levels of the common European framework).  About 1000 pupils in the first year of lyceum have signed up for the PET exams and 250 in the third year of lyceum for the IGCSE. Diagnostic tests were carried out among 1000 pupils of the first year of gymnasium which will be repeated in October 2021. 

Prodromou said the ministry was aiming to introduce a similar programme for French language as part of its cooperation with the French government. 

The minister also announced cooperation with Tepak (Cyprus University of Technology) for programmes in hotel and catering and tourism. 

With pupils of the first two years of lyceum due back in class on Monday as part of phase one of the easing of the lockdown, Prodromou said that the focus must be on the faithful implementation of health protocols. And he appealed for special care ahead of Tsiknopempti on Thursday, traditionally associated with parties and BBQs before the start of Lent. Such events cannot be held this year, he stressed. 

Meanwhile, in accepting an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Bolton on Friday, Prodromou, highlighted the close ties between Cyprus and UK, particularly in the field of education. 

“It is my great pleasure to be associated with the University of Bolton, an institution which has played a pivotal role in educating people for almost two centuries and has never lost sight of its foundation’s purpose and the need to educate and transform people from all walks of life,” he said. Prodromou noted that Cypriot students are highly mobile and almost as many study abroad as at home. The UK is the second most popular destination for Cypriot students abroad after Greece, with almost 9000 students.