While the Campuses of Trades and Qualifications (CMQ) are presented as structuring tools to bring together education, employment, and territorial development in the sports field, their implementation raises questions about institutional balance. In Occitanie, the governance of the sports CMQ seems to be creating a new hierarchy among stakeholders, with university STAPS programs appearing to be relegated to the background.
A territorial device that reconfigures the steering of sports training
Designed to promote cooperation between professional high schools, training organizations, economic actors, and local authorities, CMQs should help make training paths clearer and better meet the skills needs of sectors. In sports, the ambition is strong: to structure a coherent offering at the regional level and support professional transitions.
But behind this logic of territorial coordination, there is also a reorganization of training management. The organizational texts of the sports CMQ in Occitanie show that access to the consortium and participation in strategic decisions are based on a regulated membership process, in which CREPS (Regional Centers for Education in Sports) hold a central position.
Are STAPS programs on the bench of substitutes?
The CMQ aims to structure pathways between secondary, higher, and professional training, in an ecosystem logic. However, even though university STAPS programs represent more than 60% of the degrees in the sports field, their place in the system appears uncertain.
They can join as associate members – just like associations, businesses, or local authorities – subject to validation. A paradoxical situation: the main producers of skills in the sector are invited to participate but without a guarantee of full decision-making power.
Spectators, supporters, team players, starters?
The current governance logic questions the actual positioning of universities and STAPS training in the sports CMQ:
– Onlookers? – Operational partners? – Or true strategic co-pilots?
What is their place? The membership grid itself – spectator, supporter, team player, starter – reflects an implicit hierarchy of roles. In this institutional game, what position is actually granted to those who train most of the sports professionals?
A governance strategy concentrated around CREPS
The internal regulations state that the campus operates on a consortium principle, based on shared governance and co-construction of actions.
In reality, the identified founding members include the regional education authority, the Region, the CROS (Regional Olympic and Sports Committee), and the two CREPS in Occitanie. Above all, the procedure for new member admission reveals a crucial point: all requests are handled by the operational director, then the two CREPS directors have a deadline to express their opinion, and admission is validated in case of unanimous agreement.
In other words, entry into the campus – and therefore access to governance and structuring projects – depends directly on their position.
A silent recomposition of the sports system
Beyond the Occitan case, this situation raises a broader question about the evolution of sports governance and its training. As CMQs become places for territorial structuring, they redefine the power dynamics between training institutions, state services, public operators, and the sports movement.
The risk is to see a logic where higher education, despite being central in skills production and pedagogical innovation, is repositioned as a partner among others – involved in projects but less associated with structuring decisions.
Training most of the sports professionals without fully participating in the system’s orientations: a temporary anomaly or a new norm being established?
