Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides inaugurated on Monday the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA)-Nicosia campus and spoke of an “historic day.”
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, founded in 1837, will be operating four Schools and eight Departments in Cyprus and will offer courses in Greek and English, in the capital Nicosia and the coastal town of Larnaca. It is the first Greek University to operate a branch outside Greece.
Today, the inauguration of the Medical School, the first to operate in Cyprus, and the student dorms took place, in the heart of the old city of Nicosia, near the City Hall, in the presence of the Archbishop of Cyprus, the President of the Parliament, the former President of the Republic, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, the rectors and other officials and the first students who received their medical gowns as first-year students and have already started classes today.
The NKUA has two offices at the historic Eleneion Elementary School and will make use of the Achilleios Library. It also had equipped reading rooms, laboratories, student dormitories and classrooms.
President Christodoulides, a graduate of the NKUA himself, during the inauguration, said that the largest and oldest University of Greece, the first in the entire Balkan Peninsula and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, with global recognition and prestige, is beginning its operation in Cyprus.
He added that the operation is a milestone in our great effort to further internationalize and upgrade Higher Education in Cyprus and strengthens the strategic goal of making our country a regional center of knowledge, research and innovation, with significant, multi-level benefits for society, the economy and the international image of Cyprus.
The President referred to the benefits of the presence of the University of Athens in terms of collaborations, expanding academic and research development, creating prospects for students, researchers and society as a whole and contributing to further strengthening the unbreakable ties with Greece.
He reiterated that the Government essentially supports every effort that upgrades Higher Education and expands international collaborations with Universities and Research Centers, with a vision for Cyprus to emerge as a recognized hub of excellence and innovation on the global academic map.
He went on to say that our first and main goal is for Cyprus to establish itself as an international educational center of excellence, capable of attracting students, researchers and academics from all over the world, through the internationalization of our Universities, the establishment of international partnerships and our participation in European and international Higher Education networks.
He added that within this framework, the establishment and operation, in Cyprus, of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Campus contributes decisively to the achievement of our goals.
Archbishop Georgios of Cyprus, also a graduate of the University of Athens, referred to its invaluable contribution to Cypriot Hellenism, saying that for many years the University of Athens accepted thousands of Cypriots without exams, regardless of their baccalaureate degree, and educated many generations with the Greek ethos, at a time when the British were sending graduates to their own Universities “with the aim of anti-Hellenism.”
The Archbishop of Cyprus referred to the high level of the University of Athens and its high achievements around the world, which still receive honorable mention from major universities abroad.
He also spoke about the importance of Greek education on an island like Cyprus, which has known so many conquerors in its long history. It was, he stressed, the main factor in the failure of anti-Hellenism, which was the goal of our conquerors, and without its contribution we would not have survived and would have perished.
In his greeting, the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Gerasimos Siasos referred to the role of the University in supporting Cypriot Hellenism throughout the years with various actions and activities and the promotion of programs and theses, missions and excavations.
He spoke of a historic step with the establishment of the branch in Cyprus and added that after the operation of the Medical School, in 2026 the courses of the Department of Nursing, the Department of Business Administration, the Department of Primary Education, the English-language program of Classical Studies will begin in Nicosia. The Department of Psychology and the Department of Port and Maritime Management will also begin their operation in the city of Larnaka.
Rector Siasos said that in the future other undergraduate programs will operate with the promotion of research and the attraction of students from other countries.
He particularly thanked those who worked hard in Greece and Cyprus to make this step possible today and stressed that the mutual love of Cyprus for the NKUA and the relationship between Greece and Cyprus throughout the centuries left no room in not implementing this historic project.
The Mayor of Nicosia, Charalambos Prountzos, noted the enormous benefits that the operation of the branch of the leading Greek University has for the divided city adding that the inner-walled city of Nicosia warmly embraces the professors, students, researchers and staff and the presence of the NKUA honors the city.
Prountzos stated that the presence of the NKUA in Nicosia is of great importance because it symbolizes the deepening of the educational relations between the two countries and strengthens the role of Nicosia as an educational hub.
He said that with the approval of the application for the establishment of the branch, investment interest in Nicosia has taken on a ”snowball form” and called on President Christodoulides to evaluate the expansion of the student housing subsidy scheme, that operated under the recovery fund.
He said that Nicosia is moving forward with confidence and assured students that the city will be by their side and support them in whatever they might need.