Tepak deal with EU universities widens scope for study abroad

Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) co-signed the Limassol agreement with seven other European universities, providing the foundations for the creation of the European university of technology (EUt+) which includes common curriculums among the partners.

The signing ceremony took place on Friday in the presence of the director general of the directorate general for education, Themida Christofidou.

It provides for setting up an International Teams Coordination Office (ITCO) on each campus and an Erasmus EUt+ Office, in addition to signing an agreement to establish clusters of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Tepak’s rector, Panayiotis Zaphiris, told the Cyprus News Agency that the agreement is important for the university as it “becomes in fact, part of a large alliance, which has about 100 thousand students”.

The other seven partners making up EUt+ are University of Applied Sciences in Germany, Riga Technical University in Latvia, Technological University Dublin, Ireland, Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria, Polytechnic University of Cartagena in Spain, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania, University of Technology of Troyes in France.

The creation of the European University of Technology does not abolish the entity of the participating universities, but will offer different types of study programmes, which will be created with the support of the EU, Zaphiris added.

Through these new programmes, students will be able to study for six months or a year at one of the other universities, something that is expected to bring a number of foreign students to Tepak, which “will create a mobility both in our university and in the city of Limassol, but it will also bring exchange of experiences and practices” the rector said.