The politics of higher education: the European Higher Education Area through the eyes of its stakeholders in France and Italy

This article explores recent politics of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by focusing on the examination of the continuing involvement of France and Italy in it, which are two – of the EHEA’s founding countries. The study reported in this article is built on a theoretical observation that higher education is political. It relies on expert interviews with representatives from key policy-making institutions in France and Italy, and key recent EHEA official communications. The thematic analysis of these data sources reveals that the EHEA is not just a forum for higher education cooperation, but a political platform for cross-country relations in the European region and a platform for generating responses to crises. Additionally, specifically, France’s and Italy’s continuing involvement in the EHEA has a particular political undertone dictated by the internal politics of both countries and the evolving politics of the EHEA. This study contributes to a better understanding of the political nature of the EHEA and its implications for higher education policy outcomes.