The number of students enrolled in universities in North Cyprus is expected to top 70,000 this academic year, it was reported yesterday.
Last year’s figures reveal Turkish Cypriots were a minority in the North’s education institutes.
According to Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Yeni Duzen’, the number of students enrolled in the eight universities operating in the TRNC reached 62,726 for the academic year 2013-2014.
The number of newly-registered students in the North has seen a year-on-year increase since 2008.
Education official Ziya Ozturkler told the paper that the total number of students during the academic year 2014-2015 is expected to reach 70,000.
Based on the academic year 2013-2014, Ozturkler said 13,000 registered university students were Turkish Cypriot, 15,000 were from third countries while the vast majority, or 35,000 were from Turkey.
Meanwhile, in a separate article in ‘Vatan’, Ankara’s representative in the North Halil Ibrahim Akca predicted that the number of university students this year will reach 73,000.
He was quoted as saying that the economy of North Cyprus depended to a great extent on the revenue from tertiary education.
“At the moment, 30% of the gross national product consists of higher education revenue together with the direct and indirect effects,” Akca said.
