A proposal of the Ministry of Education for an alternative student admission procedure into public universities in Cyprus has been approved today by the Council of Ministers.

The proposal provides that all public and private school students of secondary education would have the right of equal access to state universities.

Education Minister Costas Kadis expressed his hope that the proposal would be soon passed by the House of Representatives so that the new university admission system will go into effect next year.

He noted that in order to ensure the level of knowledge of the modern Greek all prospective students from public and private schools will have to take a common exam on Modern Greek.

Minister also assured that not a single seat is affected by the new procedure of those currently offered through the Pancyprian Exams since the places to be offered through the alternative procedure would be redundant, namely there will be an increase of the seats offered for the public universities.

The Ministry of Education in an announcement says that the new admission procedure will be based on redundant seats of up to 10%.

It also notes that new access system was formed after consultation and agreement between the Ministry of Education and the University of Cyprus and the CUT and meets the current requirements of the education system.