A Cypriot student who was studying dentistry in Ukraine left his studies and returned to Cyprus in order not to be at risk from the war.
Giorgos Georgiou has been in contact with the Ministry of Education for nine months in order to find a solution for to continue his studies elsewhere, as he has already missed one year and as things seem, he will miss the next one as well.
Following the issue, SigmaLive contacted the Director General of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth , Neophytos Papadopoulos who told us his position on the specific issue.
Specifically, Mr. Papadopoulos mentioned that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took steps to help the student. He emphasized that from the moment the student left Ukraine and turned to the Ministry of Education to provide him with solutions, they from the first moment contacted the Greek government to continue his studies in Greece.
It is noted that, through legislation, the Greek government transferred the Greek students of Ukraine to the Universities of Greece to continue their studies.
As Mr. Papadopoulos mentioned, after frequent communication, the information from Greece was that finally there were insurmountable obstacles to include him and the request could not be satisfied.
After contacting the student's father, the options they had before them were either to enter a public university in Cyprus but in another school as there is no dentistry in a public university in Cyprus but because he did not want to continue in another school the only option left was to continue dentistry at a private university in Cyprus.
Due to the high cost of tuition fees and given the financial situation of the student's family, following a proposal to the Cabinet, the Ministry of the Interior submitted to the Ministry of Finance to give sponsorship to the student to cover part of the tuition fees.
According to information from SigmaLive, the response of the Ministry of Finance is positive, but only for the first year after that, he must apply again if the conditions do not change in order to be evaluated.
The position of the student >
Giorgos Georgiou told SigmaLive that they never ruled out any option for him to continue in another school, they simply expressed the desire to continue dentistry as he already studied in Ukraine for three years.
As for his transfer to Greece, he said that they were not informed in time that they would not include him in Greece and for months they believed that it was certain that he would continue his studies at a Greek university, until they packed their bags. He also added that after many attempts by the family to get in touch with the Ministry, they finally learned that he will not be moving to Greece.
Finally, he noted that the family has not yet been informed of the decision of the Ministry of Finance. to grant him part of the tuition fees, but he does not consider that the help for only one year is a solution since there is a possibility that next year he will not be granted part of the tuition fees.
