The rising number of international students studying in Cyprus hasn’t come as a shock owing to the fact that schooling in Cyprus is both affordable for most backgrounds compared to schooling in more advanced countries like UK and Australia, as much as it is elevating.
It is on this premise that each year the number of student visas issued to applicants into Cyprus has experienced a steady rise. More so, Cyprus is gradually becoming a top destination for students desiring to school abroad, especially students of African origin.
However, studying in Cyprus doesn’t comes with its own challenges. The good thing is, these barriers are surmountable with sheer grit and application of common sense.
There are numerous challenges facing international students in Cyprus, especially Africans, particularly Nigerians, regardless of the good old songs we often hear about studying overseas.
This post isn’t aimed at discouraging you from pursuing your dream of studying in Cyprus but rather, it is aimed at helping you prepare adequately to ensure a smooth schooling process, avoiding failed dreams because of lack of adequate preparation, which over the years, have been largely attributed to ignorance.
Here, I will bring to your notice what lies ahead of you as an international students in Cyprus so you can avoid it by preparation and planning. If you fail to plan, you are invariably planning to fail.
For clarity, I will begin like you are considering studying in Cyprus and have looked up universities and course you want to study there but haven’t made the trip yet, and gradually progress to challenges facing existing international students presently in Cyprus and it is my hope that at the end of this post, you grasp the primary message this post is sending; which is, don’t rush heedlessly to study in Cyprus as an international student if your sponsors lack the financial might to see you through school putting several costs into consideration.
(i) Visa application
Jetting to Cyprus to school first requires you to have a visa. Among several factors that determine that your student visa application gets approved, you are required to show evidence of acceptance letter from your university. In order to receive this acceptance letter, you must have received an offer of a place at a Cyprus university and paid your tuition fee as an international student in US dollars.
This is in addition to your sponsor (s) meeting the requirement of having a specified amount in the bank to ensure you aren’t coming to be a beggar in Cyprus before your visa gets approved.
All that is required academically is a good o’level (high school or secondary school) result at credit level.
(ii) Residency issues
Studying and living in Cyprus doesn’t end at obtaining a visa and paying for your air ticket to Cyprus. Schooling in Cyprus requires international students to renew their residency every year at a fee, say 180 TL, which is a legal right to live in a foreign country.
Failure to comply with this obligation leaves you at the mercy of the authorities, which means you risk being deported back to your home country if found.
Some international students in Cyprus, especially those of Nigerian origin are having difficulty coping with residency. Failure to renew residency when due attracts additional 100 TL daily till you renew.
And even if you are to travel back to your home country hoping to trick the authorities, they will get hold of you when you return and you will have to renew your residency plus the additional charges for the period of time you were without it.
(iii) Difficult to school and work
Schooling in Cyprus requires money and it requires a lot of it. Make no mistake about it. I have a sister studying at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, North Cyprus and I can tell it is financially intensive if you are not on any form of scholarship.
If you are not from a financially stable background that can keep up with your school demands over the period of your course duration, then you may be in for a blackout.
Many international students jet off to study a four or five year degree course in Cyprus with only their first year tuition fee and accommodation. That’s modest. Most students leave the shores of their countries to school in Cyprus without having accommodation finance for the first year of study in the bag.
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Reason being that they hope to school and work in Cyprus to offset basic costs of schooling abroad. This is often not the case.
Most poor and middle-class families take loans or sell landed properties to ensure their wards get a taste of the revered education abroad without adequate preparation for subsequent years, leaving their wards to their fate in a foreign land.
Schooling and working in Cyprus to cover basic expenses as often envisaged by prospective international students isn’t easy to come by. Many international students presently in Cyprus are in this dilemma struggling between the decision of galloping along or abruptly ending their school and unceremoniously returning to their home country.
It is difficult getting a job to offset your bills as an international student in Cyprus due to citizenship restriction, although not impossible. There are ‘few’ jobs you can get if you press further and those jobs have low pay, say 300 TL a month, compared to a local earning much higher doing the same job or more menial job.
So if you were a student that hoped on schooling in Cyprus in advancing your education, you may be left staring at the red line.
(iv) Stereotype against Africans, particularly Nigerians
Although racism isn’t common in Cyprus, international students of African origin often find themselves on the back foot for several reasons owing to crime, extortion, etc, with most often self-inflicted.
International students of Nigerian origin in Cyprus are the worse hit by this stereotype. Previous history of crimes associated with Nigerians living in Cyprus has made Nigerian students a target for abuse. If a crime is committed by a black in Cyprus, it is assumed automatically to be a Nigerian even if the identity of the individual is yet to be ascertained.
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Severally factors has contributed to this. We were in search of an accommodation for my sister in 2018 because she needed to secure an apartment closer to school. Finally, we got a vacant flat close to school. The local who owns the flat in the building was literally unhappy to realize we were Nigerians and a Nigerian wanted occupying the apartment. He went on to reveal to us that the former occupant of that flat were two Nigerians and that within a space of five months, more than nine other black folks had become occupants of the flat even though he had only given it out to two persons.
To clear our doubts, he ushered us into the flat and to our amazement, most of the facilities in that apartment were so dilapidated that I immediately wondered if humans were the previous occupants. Notably, the kitchen cabinets had been tempered with such that it seemed people climbed and walked on them. For God’s sake, what were the occupants looking for in a kitchen cabinet that it got that bad?
It took a lot of persuasion and promises to be of good conduct for the local to sanction the stay of another Nigerian in that apartment. What impression have they left as Nigerians? Your guess is as good as mine.
No doubt, the prospect of obtaining an international degree from a foreign university is appealing. The difficulty in securing admission into local universities hasn’t helped either as it has only elevated the quest to study abroad with Cyprus being one of the top destinations, especially for African and Nigerian students alike.
Studying in Cyprus is interesting, howbeit, it requires finance and a lot of it. Ensure you don’t join the band wagon of international students whom have dropped out of school for financial reasons and are avoiding the authorities in Cyprus. They no longer hold studentship in Cyprus nor can they return to their home country for sake of the disappointment especially on the part of family and loved ones who still believe their wards are in school and will soon return a graduate. Return back home and reveal the truth about their academic venture abroad, they must.
Be ready mentally, ensure your sponsors have the requisite finance to send you to school in Cyprus for the duration of your academic program, arrive in Cyprus and be a good ambassador of your family and country both in your studies and general conduct, then I can hope to see you in the near future through with school.
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Maxwell is a Dietitian with passion for showing people hope. With nearly a decade experience helping people make key decisions on education and career, you can find him almost everywhere on this site. From answering admission and scholarship questions to creating tutorials and helping others live their best lives though nutrition. Connect with me on Twitter.