Cypriot Minister of Culture visits HKU

01 december 2022

Yiannis Toumazis, Minister of Culture from Cyprus, is an alumnus of HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, where he studied Theatre Design in the eighties. During his current visit to the Netherlands, he spoke about this with Theatre students at Janskerkhof on Wednesday 30 November.

Theatre students met with Toumazis to talk about their work and future, in which he shared with them what he personally gained in his life from his education. Toumazis: "My time at HKU was a turning point in both my life and my career. My education provided me with unique opportunities to actively participate in cultural life and nurtured my sense of creativity".

Encouraging

Nowadays, about three hundred students from abroad are enrolled at one of the nine schools of HKU. Nine of them are from Cyprus, studying various courses at HKU. Several of them met with the Minister and discussed their studies at HKU. After the visit, they stated that it’s encouraging that their country now has a minister who is fully focused on culture and that he, like them, once was a student at HKU.

Life-long value

Edwin Jacobs, member of the Executive Board, added that the Minister’s visit clearly illustrates that studying is an important and formative experience. ‘The fact that Toumazis has personally visited his former academy to share with our students what he gained from his education, indicates that the value of studying stretches well beyond your student years, impacting the rest of your life and your further career.’