Minister of Education Prodromos Prodromou said on Thrursday that Cyprus is rapidly becoming a regional international centre for university studies and research, noting that there are currently over 50,000 students in Cypriot universities.

Speaking at a press conference on higher education, the Minister said that university research and related activity reaches around 300 million euros.

University studies and research are advancing in such a way that what seemed to be a vision twenty years ago, ie to turn the country into an international regional centre of university education, has in recent years become reality, he pointed out.

Prodromou also said that the Council of Ministers approved today the registration of another private university, the American University of Cyprus (AUCY) in Larnaka, thus, the total number of universities in Cyprus reaches ten.

The Minister of Education noted that the number of students in Cyprus has almost doubled between 2013 and 2020.

Prodromou said that an increase of 63% was recorded since the academic year 2013-2014, when the number of students was 32,824 and in 2019-2020 their number reached 53,262. 

Around 7% of the population in our country are students of higher education, the Minister said, adding that 74% of them are students in universities and the rest study in other higher education schools.