Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos was on Thursday called upon by the Cyprus agency of quality assurance and accreditation in higher education (Dipae) to name the universities he accuses of “selling degrees”.

Dipae added that it will examine the allegations he has made whether or not he files an official written complaint, after its chairwoman of the board Mairi Koutselini held a telephone conversation with him, in which he repeated the allegations.

“On this basis, [Dipae] will repeat the checks and inspections which it carries out at educational institutions, with the cooperation of other services as and where necessary,” it said.

It added that Cyprus’ higher education sector “has distinguished itself in recent years in the European and international academic arena” and that “its timeless value should not be questioned”.

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“Since its establishment, Dipae has been implementing European standards and guidelines, through which the quality of higher education institutions in Cyprus is ensured,” it said.

Phedonos had initially made the allegations during an appearance on a podcast hosted by member of the European parliament Fidias Panayiotou.

“At this moment, we are in danger of moving from the era of golden passports, you understand what I mean, to the era of golden degrees. Some people are selling degrees in Cyprus,” he said.

He added that there are universities “which have 2,000 or 5,000 students, of whom 2,500 or 3,000 are taking the classes online”.

“No one sees them. No one can certify that these students from Africa are actually attending their classes. There is, of course, a case where a class was ‘attended’ by 150 people with false IP addresses from abroad, when actually, there were only 10 people in the class,” he said.

However, he added, “at the end of the year, the degrees are signed and sent to the African country, and the money comes in”.

“Soon, this scandal will break in Cyprus. Very soon, we’ll be on some international news outlet and it will say that we were selling thousands of degrees to Africa here,” he said.

Dipae is not the first to call on Phedonos to name the universities, with University of Cyprus rector Tasos Christofides having made a similar call earlier in the week, describing the comments as “very serious” and saying they “expose the country abroad”.

“I call on the dear mayor of Paphos to name the universities operating in this way so that no shadows are cast over the validity of the degrees students obtain with great effort and sacrifice,” Christofides said.

Phedonos’ comments echo a scandal which broke out in the north last year, with numerous high-profile figures having been arrested in the north accused of playing their parts in allowing the higher education sector there to balloon, with 28 universities having opened in the north since 2011.

Investigations centred upon the now infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou, with the chairman of Yodak, the north’s Dipae equivalent, and his deputy both among the arrested, while the north’s ‘parliament’ refused to lift the immunity of ruling coalition ‘MP’ Emrah Yesilirmak, who was implicated in the scandal.

Once under new management this year, Yodak revoked the KSTU’s permission operate no fewer than 29 degree programmes.