Cyprus

Partners situated in Cyprus

None.

Cyprus in a nutshell

Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is a Eurasian island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, east of Greece, and north of Egypt.

Cyprus is the Mediterranean's third largest island. A former British colony, it became an independent republic in 1960 and a member of the Commonwealth in 1961. The Republic of Cyprus is one of the advanced economies in the region, and has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004.

In 1974, following 11 years of intercommunal violence (1963–1974) between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and an attempted coup d'état by Greek Cypriot nationalists who aimed at annexing the island to Greece and were backed by the Greek military junta then in power in Athens, Turkey invaded and occupied the northern portion of the island. This led to the displacement of thousands of Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north. This event and its resulting political situation are matters of ongoing dispute.

The Republic of Cyprus, the internationally recognised state, has sovereignty by law over the entire island of Cyprus and its surrounding waters except small portions that are allocated by treaty to the United Kingdom as sovereign military bases. The island is de facto partitioned into four main parts:

• the area under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus, comprising about 59% of the island's area in the south;
• the Turkish-occupied area in the north, calling itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, covering about 37% of the island's area and recognised only by Turkey;
• the United Nations-controlled Green Line, separating the two, covering about 3% of the island's area; and
• two British Sovereign Base Areas (Akrotiri and Dhekelia), covering about 3% of the island's area.

It has traditionally been accepted that Greek Cypriots form up to 80%, Turkish Cypriots 18% (not including Turkish settlers), and Christian minorities (including Maronites, Latin Catholic and Armenians) 2% of the Cypriot population. According to the first population census after the declaration of independence, carried out in December 1960 and covering the entire island, Cyprus had a total population of 573,566; of whom 442,138 (77.1%) were Greek Cypriots, 104,320 (18.2%) Turkish Cypriots, and 27,108 (4.7%) others. Due to the inter-communal ethnic tensions between 1963 and 1974, an island-wide census was regarded as impossible. Nevertheless, the Greek Cypriots conducted one in 1973, without the Turkish Cypriot populace. According to this census, the Greek Cypriot population was 482,000. One year later, in 1974, the Cypriot government's Department of Statistics and Research estimated the total population of Cyprus at 641,000; of whom 506,000 (78.9%) were Greek Cypriots, and 118,000 (18.4%) Turkish Cypriots. After the partition of the island in 1974, Greek Cypriots conducted four more censuses: in 1976, 1982, 1992 and 2001; these excluded the Turkish Cypriot population which was resident in the northern part of the island. According to the Republic of Cyprus's latest estimate, in 2005, the number of Cypriot citizens currently living in the Republic of Cyprus is around 656,200. In addition to this the Republic of Cyprus is home to 110,200 foreign permanent residents and an estimated 10,000–30,000 undocumented illegal immigrants currently living in the south of the island. According to the 2006 census carried out by Northern Cyprus, there were 256,644 (de jure) people living in Northern Cyprus. 178,031 were citizens of Northern Cyprus, of which 147,405 were born in Cyprus (112,534 from the north; 32,538 from the south; 371 did not indicate what part of Cyprus they were from); 27,333 born in Turkey; 2,482 born in the UK and 913 born in Bulgaria. Of the 147,405 citizens born in Cyprus, 120,031 say both parents were born in Cyprus; 16,824 say both parents born in Turkey; 10,361 have one parent born in Turkey and one parent born in Cyprus. In 2010, the International Crisis Group estimated that the total population of Cyprus was 1.1 million, of which there was an estimated 300,000 residents in the north, perhaps half of which were either born in Turkey or are children of such settlers. However, some academic sources claim that the population in the north has reached 500,000, 50% of which are thought to be Turkish settlors or Cypriot-born children of such settlers. The village of Pyla in the Larnaca District is the only settlement in the Republic of Cyprus with a mixed Greek and Turkish Cypriot population. Outside Cyprus there is a significant and thriving Greek Cypriot diaspora and Turkish Cypriot diaspora in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the United States, Greece and Turkey.

Source: Wikipedia's page about Cyprus

Cyprus education policy

Most pupils in primary and secondary education (87.5 %, 2008/09) attend public-sector schools, which are set up and funded by the government. Private-sector schools are mainly self-funded. Those which are recognized as ‘non profit-making associations’ can be co-funded by the government and other organizations or individuals. The Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible for the administration, organization and all decisions concerning the use of financial resources by schools. Α number of post-secondary institutions offering specialized professional training remain under the authority of various ministries: Labour and Social Insurance, Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment, Justice and Public Order, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, and Health. The inspectorate of the Ministry of Education and Culture has the overall responsibility for supervising the proper functioning of the schools.

Cyprus education system

Cyprus has a highly developed system of primary and secondary education offering both public and private education. The high quality of instruction can be attributed to a large extent to the above-average competence of the teachers but also to the fact that nearly 7% of the GDP is spent on education which makes Cyprus one of the top three spenders of education in the EU along with Denmark and Sweden. State schools are generally seen as equivalent in quality of education to private-sector institutions.

Source: [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus#Education Wikipedia's page about Cyprus > Education]

Higher education

Universities in Cyprus

• University of Cyprus
• Cyprus Academy of Art
• Cyprus University of Technology (started in 2007)
• European University - Cyprus (changed name in 2007)
• University of Nicosia (changed name in 2007)
• Frederick University
• Neapolis University
• Cyprus Institute
• Open University of Cyprus

A complete list can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_Cyprus

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives

The Open University of Cyprus (OUC) is the only University in Cyprus dedicated to distance learning.

Re.ViCa Case-study

None.

References

1. Governmental Portal
2. Governmental Portal > Education
3. Wikipedia's page about Cyprus
4. Styliani Kleanthous and Frances Bell, E-LEARNING STRATEGIES IN CYPRUS, http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/stellak/e-learning-Kleanthous.pdf

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