Group wants suspension of permits to new universities in TRNC

The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, (TRNC) Higher Education Planning, Audit, Accreditation and Coordination Council (YODAK) has called for a halt in granting more permits to new universities in the island, despite pressure from the Ministry of Education for more permits to be granted.

According to Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Yeni Duzen’, after repeated postponements, the preliminary audit council, which makes the decisions regarding these permits, is expected to convene on Tuesday.

It is said that on the council’s agenda is the discussion of granting preliminary permit to three universities, including the International Aydin University of which Turkey’s former EU Affairs Minister, Egemen Bagis is a board member.

Akile Buke, YODAK’s chairperson, told the paper that the freezing of the permits might come onto the agenda again. She said that they had asked to freeze the permits and continue [granting] after seeing what would happen and added that this could not happen because there was no legal ground for this. 

She expressed the view that universities must open in a planned manner and added: 

A study should be carried out in the direction of how many universities are needed in higher education and how much will the infrastructure bear the universities.

According to the paper, 17 universities will offer education this academic year (2017-18) in the TRNC, two more than in the last academic year. The two new universities are the Bahcesehir Kibris University and the Arkin Creative Arts and Design University.

Meanwhile, independent member of the assembly, Hasan Tacoy, told the paper that he has prepared a draft law providing that that acts to establish new universities in the TRNC should be postponed for a decade. Tacoy said that he submitted the draft-law to the assembly after collecting the signatures of nine deputies. He noted that all parties have been briefed on this draft-law.

Can North Cyprus actually accommodate the present 17 universities currently operating in the island?