Moroccans protest as country refuses to recognise degrees awarded in northern Cyprus

Moroccan nationals who studied at universities in northern Cyprus staged a protest outside the country’s parliament in Rabat on Wednesday over the Moroccan government’s decision to cease its recognition of degrees awarded in the island’s northern third.

Historically, the Moroccan authorities had accepted that degrees issued in northern Cyprus were equivalent to those issued in Morocco and elsewhere in the world when returning Moroccans applied for equivalence certificates, as it considered them to have been validated by Turkey’s higher education council (Yok).

However, this changed in 2024 with immediate effect, leaving Moroccans who were already in Cyprus, and those who had graduated in 2023 and 2024, unable to get the degrees they were to obtain validated upon their return to their country of origin.

Speaking to local newspaper Sawt Al Maghrib, Ashraf Khattab, who studied pharmacy at the Cyprus International University in Mia Milia, and who serves as the coordinator of a committee of graduates, students, and parents formed to protest the decision, explained that the source of the policy change had been a letter sent from Morocco’s foreign ministry to its education ministry.

That letter, he said, “called for a halt” to the recognition of degrees issued in northern Cyprus “on the grounds that these universities are located in northern Cyprus, which is an area with a political status not recognised by the United Nations or internationally”.

He, however, argued that the decision is unfair, saying, “these universities are not new, but rather have respected placings in global rankings, are subject to evaluation by specialised international bodies, and are linked to the Turkish education system and enjoy official recognition from Turkey’s higher education council (Yok)”.

Additionally, he said that more than 3,000 Moroccan students have been affected by the decision, “even though many of them inquired before registering” at universities in northern Cyprus, and that they “were assured that the matter of equivalence does not pose any problem”.

He also argued that the impacted graduates had been victims of “administrative injustice”, as they “cannot be held responsible for imbalances in coordination between institutions”, before calling for an “urgent intervention” on the part of the Moroccan government to “find a fair solution for all students and graduates”.

In their attempts to have the decision overturned, he said that campaigners have spent nine months “knocking on the doors of all departments”, and that they have “filed complaints with political parties and parliament”, while also filing a complaint over the matter to Morocco’s ombudsman.

“However, to this day, there are no positive developments in the case. What is new regarding the case is increasing tension and anxiety and the continued ambiguity, with the increasing number of those affected among the graduates of northern Cyprus universities left without any official clarification or statement,” he said.

He added that the issue has now also “had a significant impact” on people’s lives, “as many graduates have been prevented from entering the job market or taking further examinations as their degrees are not recognised yet”.

“There are many cases in which students have had to repeat their studies or change their major, which has caused significant financial losses and losses of time,” he said.

He attributed this to “the ministry’s lack of interest in communicating with these students who are wondering about the fate of their degrees despite the fact that such degrees had been recognised for years previously”.

Additionally, he said, the issue has “created great psychological pressure and deep frustration among students and their families, in light of the lack of a clear horizon for a solution and the delay of their integration into professional life”.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita also spole to Sawt Al Maghrib about the issue, and said that “Morocco’s position based on non-recognition of what is known as North Cyprus directly affects the issue of equivalence of university degrees obtained from its institutions”.

This, he said, “makes it impossible for the Moroccan authorities to verify their validity or give them legal status”.

Previously, he had fielded a question on the matter from Morocco’s opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD) in January, and said that a “series of meetings” with impacted graduates and their parents, as well as with the country’s education ministry, would be held, “with the aim of addressing all aspects of the problem”.

Nonetheless, he remained resolute in his stance against recognising the universities, saying that “any administrative or technical interaction with these institutions could be interpreted as tacit recognition of them, especially in light of the absence of international recognition of them”.

He added that northern Cyprus’ lack of UN recognition “requires Morocco to be cautious in dealing with this issue with its diplomatic principles”.

“The process of equivalating degrees may be exploited as an entry point to impose a kind of indirect recognition of this entity. The incentives and facilities offered to Moroccan students who study there fall within this framework,” he said.

As such, he said that finding a solution to the matter “requires developing appropriate technical formulae which simultaneously take into account the national interest and maintain the consistency of the kingdom’s foreign policy, while avoiding any potential diplomatic repercussions”.

On this front, the committee of affected students said that they “place the country’s interest above all else”, but said that they “refuse to bear the consequences of administrative errors which an 18-year-old student cannot comprehend”.