Defence of thesis - Théotime Chabre: "Governing the globalisation of higher education, manufacturing the State? (De)legitimising "North Cyprus" as an international student destination at the gateway to Europe (2004-2024)".

Tuesday 10 June 2025 | from 2pm | EPS (room 101)

We are pleased to inform you that the thesis defence of Théotime Chabreentitled "Governing the globalisation of higher education, manufacturing the state? (De)legitimising "North Cyprus" as an international student destination at the gateway to Europe (2004-2024)".will be held on Tuesday 10 June 2025, from 2pm, at the Espace Philippe Séguin, room 101.

Summary:

This thesis examines the political and economic investment, in the territories of the Global South on the border of the Global North, of development projects based on the attractiveness of foreign students. At the crossroads of international political sociology, migration studies and the sociology of higher education, the analysis examines the emergence of both a state authority in Northern Cyprus and an international higher education 'hub' in this territory. By analysing several sequences in the course of the 'Island of Education' development project, it examines what the internationalisation of higher education represents as a resource for legitimising a political order, but also as a repertoire of respectability for actors inside and outside the political arena. In other words, how can an 'economic sector' dedicated to international higher education become an issue of state construction for a contested territory on the fringes of the European Union?

The failure of the reunification plan for the island of Cyprus in 2004 left the territory in the limbo of political non-recognition. From 2007 onwards, the political, economic and academic figures of this small disputed territory, supported by the Turkish authorities, announced their ambition to promote "Northern Cyprus" internationally and turn it into an "Island of Education" for foreign students. Over the next two decades, this goal continued to have a major political significance: it would be a way of "normalising" the territory's situation and ensuring its survival. In other words, the education hub and the global higher education market would become alternatives that could be recognised by the state. Twenty years on, the results are ambivalent. The island's political future is as uncertain as ever, but the "Island of Education" has taken shape. Several of the twenty-three private or semi-public universities appear in international rankings and have international accreditation. Together, they host almost 100,000 foreign students, making 'North Cyprus' a major destination for students whose passports offer particularly restricted access to international mobility. Since the mid-2010s, however, these students have tended to be increasingly identified as 'undesirables' in this territory on the European border, leading to a partial rethink of the 'Island of Education' by the authorities in Northern Cyprus.

This thesis shows that, for marginalised and fragile authorities and a society beset by a desire for 'normalisation', the hub can represent an alternative, albeit fragile, form of collective projection. It also shows that this internationalisation of higher education represents a resource for university entrepreneurs and national political players that can be reinvested in political power relations. The value of this resource is correlated with the desirability of the profiles of the foreigners who attend these universities. In Northern Cyprus, from 2015 onwards, there has been growing mistrust of prospective students, partly reflecting the migration panic that is on the rise in the countries of the global North. The symbolic enhancement of the hub by its political, academic and economic entrepreneurs is at odds with the growing injunction to the authorities to guard the borders of the Global North in the face of "waves of migration" from the Global South. A source of income and prestige for the authorities and university owners, the presence of these students on the European border is increasingly subject to migratory suspicion, undermining the consensus around the 'Island of Education'. Internationalisation 'from above' - through integration into the global higher education market and the adoption of managerial modes of governance - is therefore at odds with internationalisation 'from below' - a largely unconscious and contradictory process, the result of a meeting between university recruitment ambitions and individual student projects, on the borderline between mobility and migration.

This thesis is based on several field surveys in Cyprus, conducted between March 2018 and January 2025. These made it possible to trace all the actors and mechanisms that help to shape the higher education 'hub' of Northern Cyprus. The analysis is based on 149 semi-directive and biographical interviews with members of the national administration, university entrepreneurs, representatives of international organisations operating on the island and foreign students. It is also based on two questionnaire surveys of more than 700 students, participant observations of student associations in Cyprus and online between 2018 and 2025, and a review of press archives.

Key words : globalisation, higher education, migration, legitimacy, international, privilege

Composition of the jury :

• Irene FERNANDEZ-MOLINASenior Lecturer, University of Exeter, United Kingdom (Examiner)
• Romain LECLERAssociate Professor, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada (Rapporteur)
• Élise MASSICARDDirector of Research, Sciences Po Paris, MESOPOLHIS (thesis co-director)
• Sylvie MAZZELLADirector of Research, Aix-Marseille University, MESOPOLHIS (Thesis supervisor)
• Antoine ROGERProfessor, Sciences Po Bordeaux (Chairman of the jury)
• Camille SCHMOLLDirector of Research, EHESS (Rapporteur)
• Claire VISIERHDR Lecturer, University of Rennes (Examiner)

🎉 The presentation will be followed by a drink, to which you are warmly invited.

💻 Hybrid format: to obtain the zoom link, please register via this form.