According to the university those who wish to pay tuition fees in bitcoins, will be able to use an online merchant processing service or by paying directly to the university’s finance office.

“The intention of this initiative is to ease transmission difficulties for certain students and to build our own practical knowledge about this field, not to engage in currency speculation,” the University spokesperson told GeekWire.

Following the rising popularity of online commerce the University of Nicosia is starting the first Master of Science degree in Digital Currency. The idea is to give a whole variety of students from entrepreneurs to government officials with a better understanding of the technical underpinning of digital currency.

“While digital currency is a relatively new concept, currency is one of the oldest human inventions. What we aim to explore in
this program is the likely development pathway of digital
currency and give our students insights that they can bring to
bear in their professional careers”, said Dr. Andreas
Polemitis, the senior vice Rector.

The new Master’s programme will be taught in English,
distributing both on-campus and online to distant students, and
should begin in the spring of next year.

The virtual currency has recently been attracting a lot of
attention from both users and policymakers. On November 18
bitcoin skyrocketed to an all-time high of $900 per
unit on the Mt.Gox exchange. This is seen by some as people
around the world increasingly betting on the crypto currency. The
jump came during a hearing in the US where the Senate Homeland
Security and Government Affairs Committee is scrutinizing the
virtual currency. Officials called bitcoins a “legitimate” financial service, despite past
focus on the currency as a prime target for money
launderers.

The University of Nicosia also proposes a policy framework for
developing Cyprus into a hub for Bitcoin trading, processing and
banking

Dr. Christos Vlachos, the Nicosia University Chief Financial
Officer, explained the digital currency introduction:

“We are acutely aware that digital currency is an
inevitable technical development that will lead to significant
innovation in online commerce, financial systems, international
payments and remittances, and global economic development.
Digital currency will create more efficient services and will
serve as a mechanism for spreading financial services to
under-banked regions of the world. In this light, we consider it
appropriate that we implement digital currency as a method of
payment across all our institutions in all cities and countries
of our operations”.

UNic, formerly known as Intercollege is the largest private
university in Cyprus with 5,000 students.