2020 Cyprus Country Report

Education
Sector Profile
EDUCATING A NEW
GENERATION
Cyprus is fast becoming a new generation education
hub attracting growing numbers of both foreign
students and acclaimed academics to its universities
with the introduction of new degrees meeting future
market demands and investment in top-tier campuses.
T
he Cyprus education sector has
seen a veritable boom in the last
few years. It has become a key
sector the country is determined to
further develop and promote with
the goal of establishing Cyprus as
an international education and
research centre of excellence. The
country’s universities are competing
with each other in introducing
new programmes to fit future industries, building
state-of-the-art facilities and developing strong
partnerships with renowned universities and institutions
around the world.
Cyprus has always placed strong focus on educating
its population. Public spending on education
and training was around 5.7% of GDP in
2018, well above the EU average of 4.6%. Cyprus
also has the second-highest tertiary educational
attainment rate in the EU at 57.1% – clearly
surpassing the EU average of 40.7% – and at
64.4% women have a considerably higher attainment
rate than men at 49.2%, according to the
European Commission.
Naturally there is still room for improvement
in the outcomes and efficiency, but with the increasing
number of Cypriots choosing to enrol
in local universities instead of going abroad, and
with the growing number of foreign students
choosing Cyprus, it is clear that the quality and
versatility of the country’s higher education offering
is a strong pull factor.
KEY
contacts
Ministry of Education
and Culture
www.moec.gov.cy
Cyprus Higher Education
(Ministry of Education
and Culture)
www.highereducation.ac.cy
Cyprus Agency of Quality
Assurance and Accreditation
in Higher Education
www.dipae.ac.cy
74 Country Report CYPRUS 2020