For months now, the House education committee has been debating two bills on higher education, tabled by the government, without reaching agreement. Wednesday’s behind-closed-doors meeting was cut short, because deputies decided there were questions the education minister and the state legal service had to answer. They will appear at Friday’s meeting although their presence would be no guarantee that the parties would reach agreement and send the bill to the plenum.

The first bill, if approved, would allow the University of Cyprus (UCy) to offer undergraduate degree courses in English, with tuition fees. The second relates to the setting up of ‘branches’ in Cyprus by foreign universities, which seems unnecessary considering there are already two ‘branches’ of foreign universities – UCLan (University of Central Lancashire) and AUB (American University of Beirut). If these can operate here, why is a law needed for other universities planning on following suit?

Wednesday’s interrupted meeting focused on the conditions that would be set for the branches, with deputies asking whether a foreign university would set up more than one department or school. Others focused on the guarantee a university would have to provide – said to be in the region of €2 million – in order to set up operations here, pointing out that the amount would be prohibitive for universities from Greece.

The idea that there would be foreign universities queuing up to set up ‘branches’, with one, two or three school, in Cyprus seems difficult to comprehend. We already have a rather big number of public and private universities for the size of the population. Private universities have been financially successful initially focusing on attracting students from third world countries, while now the majority of students are from Greece. One of the reasons for their success was that they were all offering degree courses in the English language.

This is why the UCy has been demanding that the law governing its operation is changed so it can offer undergraduate degree courses in English, with tuition. It would immediately be looking at a much bigger student market with the potential of generating substantial revenue from tuition fees which it cannot charge for its Greek language courses. Currently, UCy offers post-graduate courses in English but this is a much smaller market. The issue raised is that UCy, which is funded almost entirely by the taxpayer, would be competing with private universities that receive no state funding and, possibly, depriving them of business.

Some deputies, understandably, have expressed concerns, demanding a level playing field, which currently does not exist. Private universities will be competing for students with a public university with many more resources, all paid for by the state. UCy might even undercut them by charging lower tuition fees, something it would be perfectly capable of doing given that the marginal cost of taking in foreign students would be minimal – the facilities exist as do the human resources. On the other hand, having courses in English is the only way for public universities to generate income that could ease the burden on the taxpayer.