Özersay Promises to Revoke Licences from TRNC ‘Signboard’ Universities

People’s Party (Halkın Partisi) leader Kudret Özersay said that if his party comes to power, TRNC universities that fail to meet oversight criteria will lose their operating licences. According to him, the future of higher education in North Cyprus depends on quality and effective oversight.

Özersay described as “signboard universities” institutions that have nothing to do with higher education: illegal workers pass through them under the guise of students, while the institutions themselves become centres of fraud — from fake enrolment certificates to forged diplomas. Such institutions, he said, damage the reputation of both legitimate universities and the country as a whole.

“In the new period, we will introduce rules that subject such institutions to serious scrutiny, and we will move towards cancelling university licences for those that fail to meet the criteria,” said Özersay, who has taught at universities for around 30 years.

For effective oversight, Özersay believes that YÖDAK — the Council for Planning, Supervision, Accreditation and Coordination of Higher Education — must be strengthened both in terms of staffing and powers. He proposed upgrading the Higher Education Authority, which currently operates as a unit of the Ministry of National Education, to the level of a separate institution.

The problem is not limited to fake diplomas, Özersay stressed. The sector also involves plagiarism, facilitation of illegal employment through forged student certificates, cases in which tuition payments are transferred to personal accounts, and the appointment of people with student status and no work permits to positions such as deans and other senior officials.

If the issue of fake diplomas is “swept under the rug”, he warned, higher education as part of the TRNC economy will collapse completely. Özersay called for those who engage in fraud to be held accountable and for deterrent punishments to be applied, while describing “merit, quality and oversight” as the foundation of the approach to higher education.