An additional budget will be provided next year to cover the costs for 300 students who have yet to receive their due amount awarded via an Ikyk scholarship, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
Speaking before the House education committee, a finance ministry representative of said that the ministry would provide additional funding to the budget of the State Scholarship Foundation (Ikyk) to ensure the students receive their grants.
The representative added that the ministry had reached out to Ikyk, requesting detailed information regarding payments from previous years which were yet to be provided.
“We are determined to get the information ourselves, since it is registered in the Ikyk’s digital system,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry intended to provide the funds for the total of 700 eligible students, he said, however adding that there may be outstanding payments from 2023, and possibly even 2022, which would be covered by a supplementary budget.
Education committee chairman and Diko MP Chrysanthos Savvidis warned that some of the students were at risk of having to end their studies.
He said that he had written to President Nikos Christodoulides to request an additional budget to cover scholarships for eligible students, emphasising the need to create equal opportunities and foster the student’s trust in a state institutions providing scholarships to provide support when needed.
“We are glad that the President of the Republic has listened to our appeals and we hope that we will not find ourselves as spectators in the same play next year,” he said.
Disy MP, Giorgos Karoulas called on the finance ministry to strengthen its cooperation with the Ikyk, warning that the institution was at risk of degrading itself and the concept of scholarships by being unreliable .
“Our talented children must not be victims of this situation and the unreliability of the state itself,” he said.
He said it was the government’s responsibility to support and reward gifted students and called for the scholarships to be increased.
Akel MP, Christos Christofides said he was satisfied with the minstry’s decision, “not because we achieved perfection, but because at least 300 more children will receive the support they deserve.”
Christofides said he was concerned about the situation and expressed hope that “this mess” would be fixed soon.
Elam MP Sotiris Ioannou said that according to talks with the finance ministry on Tuesday, no beneficiary would be deprived of their scholarship and that the remaining amount will be given to all beneficiaries soon.
“The information I have from the Minister of Finance is that this specific issue will be resolved within the next few days,” he pointed out.
During the discussion, the MPs also criticised the fact that no Ikyk representative was present at the meeting.
The position of the president of the organisation has been unoccupied for several months, whilst Ikyk’s deputy president is currently abroad.
Heightened interest in academic scholarships has led to an increase in Ikyk’s budget, with its supplementary budget for 2025 amounting to €1.7 million and the regular budget for 2026 set to larger than the 2025 balance sheet as was recently announced in parliament.
Ikyk is a government body providing scholarships to Cypriot, EU, and non-EU students based on academic merit and/or socio-economic status.
The scholarships are awarded for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies, and can cover studies both in Cyprus and abroad.
