Actions are being promoted to upgrade and develop higher education in Cyprus, the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Athina Michailidou said on Tuesday, after an extended inter-ministerial meeting on higher education at the Presidential Palace, under the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulidis.
He also mentioned that three large surveys are already being conducted through the Recovery and Resilience Fund, by the Ministry of Education, which monitor and record the needs in the labor market for connection with higher education.
The Minister of Education pointed out that the decision is "that we proceed with submitting a proposal to the Cabinet, which will be more broadly related to the issue of upgrading and developing higher education in our country", while very soon, they will proceed with amending the legislation as well as in all other actions that have been decided.
The Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Labor participated in the meeting, as well as officials.
After the meeting, Mrs. Michailidou, in her statements to the media, stated that the topic discussed was the upgrading of higher education in the area, noting that this is a "very important" issue within the governance program.
"We have already announced that we are also working in this area in order to have an improvement in the quality of education provided in higher education," he added.
He observed that the pillar of higher education is not only important for educational reasons in a country, but also for economic ones.
He mentioned that a dialogue and consultation took place between the Ministries, mainly the competent ones, and they focused on four pillars.
The first concerns internationalization, promoting the quality of the country's higher education, "branding, as this term is known", he said.
He also said that they focused on "the very important area" of amending the legislation "so that we distinguish what the universities, colleges, schools of higher education in Cyprus offer and their identity, the advantages and disadvantages of each institution so that everyone can they know where they are studying, why they are studying there and what they will gain at the end".
The third pillar concerns the "very important aspect of the connection between higher education and the labor market".
"For us, it is particularly important that the offered programs are related to the needs of the labor market, but above all, that our graduates have employment opportunities", added Mrs. Michailidou.
"We know that we are one of the countries where children go to university, but they have much less employment opportunities and because of their choices," he said.
Therefore, he added, "we have worked systematically so that there is an interconnection of higher education, at all levels, with the needs of the labor market through research results".
Already, he noted, the Ministry of Education, through the Recovery and Resilience Fund, is conducting three major surveys, which monitor and record the needs in the labor market. He said that these data are given and will continue to be systematically given to all the relevant Ministries so that there are quick results.
The Minister said that they also worked in the field of scholarships and incentives for foreign students to attend programs in Cyprus.
Source: KYPE