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The Minister of Education, Sport and Youth, Ms. Athina Michailidou made statements to journalists at the Presidential Palace today regarding the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers on issues within the competence of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth.
Specifically, Ms. Michailidou said in her statements: "It has been approved today by the Council of Ministers to promote the amendment of the legislation on quality assurance in higher education through the Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation Body (HQAA).
The amendment provides for the establishment and operation of branches of foreign universities, from the European Union and third countries, in Cyprus.
The benefits of this legislation are concrete and consistent with the Government's wider effort to upgrade and improve the quality of Higher Education in our country. Essentially, the amendment concerns the modernization of the legislation, while promoting the extroversion of Higher Education and upgrading its quality.
It goes without saying that the whole process is governed by specific criteria, control and continuous monitoring, and is carried out through the DIPAE, like any process for the establishment of a University in our country.
This amendment paves the way for further competitiveness, and therefore for further quality assurance in the field of higher education."
Then, Ms. Michaelidou referred to a second decision, which, as she noted, concerns the energy upgrade of school buildings. Specifically, she said: "The second Decision adopted today concerns the promotion, through the "THALEIA" Programme, of the integrated energy upgrade of schools to near-zero energy buildings (Project PEDIA). I should mention that 25 school buildings are in the process of environmental upgrading. This process has been completed in the first five schools with impressive results, as they no longer need air conditioning or heating. We are therefore continuing the implementation in another 20, through the co-financing of the "THALIA 2021-2027" programme.
"Today's decision therefore concerned that the Cyprus Energy Office undertakes further work in order to complete this project, which is subject to continuous evaluation and is in line with our objectives for upgrading the infrastructure in our schools," the Minister concluded: "What is changing is that the first phase of the project, the pilot phase, for the 5 schools was evaluated very positively and it appeared that the Cyprus Energy Office, which it should be noted was already our partner in the project, is the most competent to undertake its completion. So at this moment the responsibility for the project is fully given to the Cyprus Energy Office, with our monitoring."
In another question, on which countries were interested in establishing Universities in Cyprus, the Minister noted that apart from the interest that has already been made public by certain universities in Greece, we have interest from other countries in the surrounding region. When the amendment of this legislation is passed by the Parliament, we will be able to speak on the basis of concrete data", Ms Michaelidou concluded.
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