REDUCED TUITION FEES AT UK UNIVERSITIES NEXT YEAR

 Filenews 23 September 2020 -by Panagiota Charalambous

A number of UK universities, including Leicester, Warwick and Reading, have decided to exceptionally offer recruiters who have secured a place for this year, the same amount of tuition fees as for the current academic year and for the next. This is what the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Christodoulides, says in a reply letter to a question (dated 6 August 2020) from the ACPL MP, Irene Charalambidou, who asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform the House why, in the context of negotiations with the British Government on the issues of the Bases due to Brexit, the issue of Cypriot students who want to study in the United Kingdom was not raised.

In his reply, Mr Christodoulides also points out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues actively and together with the relevant Ministries to raise the issue of raising tuition fees to the British Government, which nevertheless denies any discussion.

Furthermore, Mr Christodoulides notes that there are hundreds of thousands of citizens from the 27 EU Member States who have chosen or planned to study at UK universities affected by Brexit, and stresses that the EU has put forward broader proposals on behalf of all EU Member States on all issues relating to citizens' mobility, including the facilitation of students. However, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes, so far the UK Government has refused to discuss these issues.

It should be noted that the status of British universities is private, which makes the possibility of influencing any relevant decisions practically more difficult.

In relation to the negotiation on the Protocol on British Bases in Cyprus, which forms an integral part of the UK Withdrawal Agreement from the EU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it was not bilateral, but between the EU and the United Kingdom and aimed to safeguard the rights of individuals (Cypriot citizens for the most part, but also other European citizens) , living and working in the Bases and in the uninterrupted continuation of the implementation of the acquis communautaire on their territory. "By its nature, but also by its aim, I am sure you realize that the interconnection of this negotiation with the issue of Cypriot students was impractical and unachievable," concludes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.