Ireland wants to identify higher education projects that will make a significant difference for both Ireland and Cyprus, Irish ambassador in Cyprus Conor Long told CNA on Wednesday.
Ambassador Long was speaking on the sidelines of a presentation by Trinity College Dublin representatives in Nicosia to the local private school community regarding higher education opportunities for Cypriot students at Ireland’s most prestigious institution.
According to the Irish ambassador, there has been a clear disruption after Brexit to the traditional pathway Cypriot students enroll in international universities. He added that through its participation in education fairs and visits to schools across Cyprus, the Irish embassy has noticed a strong demand and interest by Cypriot students in the possibility of studying in Ireland.
“We have been delighted to organize in collaboration with the Cypriot ambassador in Dublin visits to Irish universities and we look forward to deepening our cooperation on the possibility of undergraduates attending universities in Ireland. We are also looking at expanding other higher education collaborations with Cyprus through the intensification of Erasmus exchange programmes agreements between Ireland and Cyprus, which will allow Cypriots studying in universities here to spend some months in Ireland”, noted Long.
He added that he would also love to see Irish students coming to Cyprus, to learn about the country, to study here and enjoy the experience of Cyprus, while another aspect concerns research collaborations between Irish and Cypriot universities, where there is a range of subjects that will hopefully emerge from them.
Asked whether there is any sector where bilateral cooperation is more pronounced, Ambassador Long said there was a meeting at the beginning of the week with the Cyprus University of Technology and the University of Cyprus where research collaboration opportunities on nursing and geosciences were discussed, adding that more cooperation areas are bound to be identified as discussions continue, such as on agricultural sciences. “We really want to find projects that will make a significant difference for Ireland and Cyprus, a win-win set of collaborations between both countries”, he stressed.
The Irish Ambassador also said that they will work on bringing more Irish universities to Cyprus, ideally by creating a programme where several Irish universities would come every year, representing the most diverse range possible, depending also on particular interests, but he would also like to see Cypriot university delegations visiting Ireland, particularly in the area of research.
Source: Cyprus News Agency