The budget was approved with 36 votes in favour, 2 against and 2 abstentions.
The budget of the University of Cyprus, which is balanced and foresees expenses of €188,450,000 and an equal amount of income, was approved with criticism from a section of MPs for mismanagement, opacity, lack of strategic planning and lack of prioritization and scandals.
The budget was approved with 36 votes in favor, 2 against and 2 abstentions.
At the meeting, there were, for the umpteenth time, discussions on the regulations and the procedure concerning the time of party positions and the second agendas with the MPs who took the floor to call for a solution and regulation to be found at last so that the Plenary does not give off this bad image at every meeting.
More than ten amendments were submitted on the subject and some joint DIKO and DIPA passed.
The budget
The budgeted expenses for the year 2024 concern among others current costs (€86,352,576), operational costs (€12,417,433), administrative costs (€15,378,954), capital costs (€34,442,558), external research programs (€33,780,000), co-financed projects and plans (€5,540,835) and unforeseen expenses and reserve (€537,615).
The budgeted income of the University of Cyprus comes from, among others, the government sponsorship (€90,000,000), the government sponsorship for projects from lending by the European Investment Bank and the Development Bank of the Council of Europe (€20,000,000), undergraduate tuition ( €17,495,000), the feeding allowance to eligible students (€420,000) and the funding for the provision of state scholarships to beneficiaries (€110,000).
They also come from the income for projects and projects co-financed by community funds (institutional funding for the upgrade of KIOOS) (€865,000), the income for projects and projects co-financed by community funds (BIOBANK – Biobanking and the Cyprus Human Genome Project – institutional funding ) (€2,000,000) as well as the funding resulting from the cooperation agreement between the State Health Services Organization (OKYpY) and the University of Cyprus for the School of Medicine (€2,510,000).
Also coming from funding from the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan – Upgrade of RES and smart grid test infrastructure at the University of Cyprus (€840,735), funding from the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan – Economic Policy Modeling Center (€378,500), the research programs (€35,000,000), postgraduate tuition fees (€2,931,579) and various collections and reserve (€15,804,186).
Party placements
< p>Giorgos Karoullas of DISY rang the bell for increasing the budget every year and spoke of good faith criticism, appealing to the relevant ministries for control.
In essence, he said, the budget is in deficit by 22 million and the situation is getting worse with the medium-term budgetary framework reaching 26 million. He said that actions are needed, proper evaluation of programs, immediate implementation of a rationalization study and new strategic planning by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Finance.
He also referred to a delay in the projects and criticized the handling of the student residences, recalling DISY's proposals on the subject. university hospital, connecting graduates with the labor market and industry and offering foreign language programs, among others.
Responding to Mr. Karoullas, the Chairman of the Education Committee, Pavlos Mylonas, said that “the disease of elections is incurable” and that what Mr. Karoullas said “he does not believe”.
He mentioned that the control by the Government is a huge capital raising the issue of changing the legal framework, if necessary, for the role of the Boards. Mr. Mylonas said that education is the most useful tool after the family while he described the EY reports as heartbreaking.
He asked himself what is more important, to expand the administrative offices in PK or to renovate school facilities, to upgrade special education, to build new schools and stadiums. It is important how we prioritize needs and priorities, he concluded.
Christos Christofidis from AKEL said that the PK is perhaps the most important investment that has brought many positives to society, however he spoke of the absence of strategic planning. This, he said, has brought us to a scenario today where universities are growing and the state cannot meet their basic needs and we are discussing the consequences.
He stressed the need to protect public universities but to have full transparency and nothing to blame. He also called it an exaggeration to refer to major scandals.
Chrysanthos Savvidis from DIKO spoke about the role of public universities and that while the PK made progress, there is still a lot to be done in terms of transparent procedures.
He said that EY reports are not taken into account and universities are exposed.
Alekos Tryfonidis of DIPA said that the highest priority is to support higher education and that while PK promotes academic excellence and has high international rankings, “we do not tolerate mismanagement, oligarchy and arrogance”.
He said that modern needs must be served and not have graduates unemployed and diplomas in the drawers, criticizing at the same time the issue with the construction of student residences. He said that students are renting in the occupied areas or commuting to other cities.
Independent Andreas Themistokleous said that the PK cannot accept donations that create higher burdens while criticizing the delays at the polytechnic school, the fact that the cancer center he receives a million euros from the state every year and his director works remotely from Tel Aviv with no employees on a salary of 200,000 euros a year.
He also criticized the fact that a person receives benefits that exceed his salary while another person was dismissed but “by mistake”, as he claimed, he receives 4,000 euros in travel expenses.
