Capital: Lefkosia (Nicosia)

Background: The Republic of Cyprus was created in 1960 through international agreements reached in Zurich and London in February 1959, with a constitution that went into effect in August 1960. The constitution recognized the strong bicommunal character of the new state, with elaborate safeguards for the minority Turkish Cypriot community. In the preindependence debate over the governmental structure of the new state, neither Britain nor the Turkish Cypriot community accepted the concept of "minority rights" as an organizing principle. Rather, the Turkish Cypriots were recognized as one of two "communities" with certain rights; the legitimacy of the state would derive from the partnership between the two communities. The Cypriot consociational experiment had some unique features designed to achieve a delicate balance between the prevailing Greek Cypriot preference for a unitary state and the Turkish Cypriot desire for as much recognition as a separate political entity as possible. The tension between these two communal priorities proved insurmountable.

Higher Education: Today Cyprus is a modern country that mixes European culture with ancient history, one of the reasons it is becoming ever more popular with international students as a study abroad destination. Students coming to Cyprus will find beautiful beaches and rocky mountain peaks, vineyards crowded with olive trees and ancient ruins that are thousands of years old. Cyprus is a relaxed country for the overseas student to learn english or a university degree and its residents are a welcoming, carefree and kind people.

There are many fields of study that the students may choose for applying in the colleges in Cyprus. But Cyprus is well known for the study of Hotel/ Hospitality and Tourism Management Programs. Most of the colleges in Cyprus offers the diploma and under graduate programs in Hospitality management. And another thing is that, at the present situation, the permit of working (called paid practical training) is only given to the students of hotel and hospitality fields. So, life will be harder for those who intend to come here for the study of other subjects.

In Cyprus, there are three semesters in a year in the colleges. Which are described below:  

Fall Semester (Oct -Jan)

Spring Semester (Feb -May)

Summer Semester (June -July)

Most of the colleges offer all the courses in fall and spring semester but only limited courses in the summer semester. Most of the international students enter Cyprus in Fall Semester (October).

The higher education sector in Cyprus is comprised of private and public institutions, which teach in Greek and English (some institutions teach in both languages).

While most institutions focus on preparing their studies for careers in primary/ secondary education and in business administration, there are also opportunities for studying nursing, forestry, engineering and the humanities the second sciences.

(a) University Sector

The only university in Cyprus is the University of Cyprus. The University teaches in Greek. It comprises five faculties and seventeen departments, as follows:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Education
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Department of Social and Political Sciences
Department of Turkish Studies
Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences

Department of Chemistry
Department of Computer Sciences
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Department of Physics
Faculty of Economics and Management

Department of Economics
Department of Public and Business Administration
Faculty of Letters

Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
Department of Classics and Philosophy
Department of History and Archaeology
Faculty of Engineering

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

(b) Non-University Sector

The non-university sector comprises about thirty public and private institutions of higher learning, offering mostly two-year and four-year courses in a variety of fields (primary and secondary education, business administration, nursing, forestry, engineering, hotel and tourism studies, humanities and social sciences, computer science, and the physical sciences).