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Join on Telegram Higher education (HE) in Morocco has steadily evolved over the last seven decades since the inauguration of the first Moroccan modern public university in Rabat in 1957. Beginning with that date, national public universities have slowly grown in number, reaching to date twelve public or state universities and a dozen more private or semi-public universities. The Moroccan public university initially functioned as an academic pipeline supplying public servants trained to serve in different administrative stations–mainly in the public sector. Initially, Moroccan universities undertook their missions as well as they could manage to respond to the pressing demands of a nation aspiring to keep the gearshifts of its political and national sovereignty in its own hands particularly when Morocco won its independence in 1956.
Moroccan University System in Perspective
Because of the Protectorate-driven prevalence of the French language, Morocco opted for the French university model, prioritising academic rigour mainly in theoretical science and other areas of scholarship such as social sciences and the humanities. The implementation of a French-oriented HE model in Morocco seems to have played a fundamental role in the centralisation of the idea of the university in Morocco as a public and state-governed entity, and as such this model explains in part the gradual and slow creation of newer public universities in different regions of the country.
For almost two decades, only two modern public universities dominated the topography of higher education in Morocco, idem: Mohammed Vth University in Rabat founded in1957 and Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah established in Fes in 1975. The constellation of the public universities that would eventually be established here and there across the Kingdom has indeed played a vital role in terms of responding to the needs of a growing community of students living hundreds of miles away from Fes or Rabat. No single university would have afforded the means and capacity to cater for the requests of a population of students, which rose from only 3792 students in 1956 to around 40.000 students in 1975, a year which marks the inauguration of Hassan II University, the third modern public university to be established in Morocco. Now, Morocco boasts of catering for a community of students exceeding 13.01439 students.
The increase in the number of public universities, we must admit, was driven by the necessity to accommodate Moroccan students in different university programmes. Nonetheless, the creation of new universities embodied at best a breathless effort to catch up with the spiking trends of students all over Morocco. To meet the social demands of providing free education and enough seats to all holders of Baccalaureate diplomas has resulted eventually in far more students accommodated in what is referred to as open-access institutions such as faculties of law, economics, humanities, and faculties of fundamental science. As a result, approximately 85 per cent of the overall national mass of university students was to be crammed into course programmes that maintain, if at all, a poor affinity with the dynamics of social change and market trends in terms of employability, economic productivity, and social adaptability. The multiplication of state universities served to deepen the single public university model in the topography of Moroccan higher education and impeded the much desired but hardly publicly articulated need to develop autonomous university structures empowered to ensure high-end academic and research programmes.
The primacy of the single national HE model has retarded and slowed the creation of private universities in Morocco and contributed to the dominance of the single national model of the university as an academic powerhouse designed to administer national qualifications and put into practice ministerial guidelines and policies. Moroccan universities as public institutions have remained to date state-dependent in terms of funds and have as such never seriously experimented with the idea of exercising autonomy in terms of generating considerable revenues to help them review their functions and internal regulations as they have been chartered in outdated legal texts before the last reform inspired by the much-awaited national strategy Pacte ESRI 2030. As such these public institutions have delivered very little in terms of developing flexible, up-to-date, and adequate training programmes for a fast-changing job market and an increasingly value-driven ecosystem. In other words, the national higher education sector had remained until the year 2023 indifferent to the multiple economic transformations and strategic shifts that characterised Morocco’s evolving economy at least over the last three decades.
The centralisation of the national HE model has indeed helped universities manage some of their academic and administrative tasks with ease and has created a mirror-like effect among universities in terms of the implementation of various procedural and managerial matters; national diplomas as delivered by state-run universities enjoy the same value and abide by the same regulatory norms, a fact which makes it technically guaranteed for graduates to enjoy the privileges associated with holding a national diploma irrespective of which university seal is affixed to the document.
National and international agencies find it also fairly easy to screen Moroccan national diplomas given that the number of public universities issuing certificates and degrees is small, and as such these diplomas are all approved by a well-identified HE authority. The replication of the single university model in various regions of the Kingdom has, however, brought about a crippling environment characterised by redundant and unresourceful catalogues of academic programmes.
Before the implementation of the new national strategy in higher education (Pacte ESRI 2030) academe in Morocco had for long remained insulated and unsusceptible to innovation, self-expression, and initiative-taking. Before the current academic year, the twelve public institutions acted and performed as a mega academic structure delivering similar degrees and qualifications, administering quasi-identical academic programmes taciturn about local dynamics or international transformations. The adoption of the one-model system for HE in Morocco persisted even when the modular system LMD (Licence, Master, Doctorate) took form in 2004. A host of technical and procedural constraints accompanied the impetuous and radical transition from a traditional department-oriented system of learning to a modular and course-oriented teaching model.
The 2004 reform was most concerned with installing a modular system and rearranging academic calendars in terms of semesters over three years for a first degree (Licence). Neither students nor faculty back then had a clear perception of the terminology put in place within the context of this transition. The introduction of the 2004 reform terminology mainly in French gave way to controversy over an arsenal of terms such as “filière”, “module”, “élement de module”, “cahiers des norms pédagogiques” etc., and with that controversy, the finality of this reform remained superfluous and indifferent to the reality of university structures facing exponential increases in student flows.
The national university reform back then gave the impression that the new nomenclatures were objectives in themselves in the absence of substantial transformations of academic contents within a socio-economic context in full mutation. Debates and meetings often centred around interpreting the defining terminology in regulatory texts rather than around the substance of course contents. As a result, it took universities many years to adapt to the modular system and manage academic services as best as possible. Faculty members often complained about the difficulty of managing academic calendars and meeting the deadlines of semestrial exams, particularly in open access colleges which had to for thousands of students.
Reorienting priorities and accelerating transformation
In April 2021, the Special Commission on the Development Model, established by a Royal mandate in 2019, issued a General Report in which it identified some of the key elements required to bring about and accelerate a cross-sectoral structural transformation of Morocco’s ecosystem in a global context marked by economic competitiveness and technological rivalry. The commission’s report articulated the Kingdom’s ambition to renovate and empower its development apparatuses in the years to come to put in place an inducive and resilient programme for development that will serve as the principal frame of reference for all national stakeholders. Higher education was highlighted among the main sectors in which drastic and efficient transformations had to take place.
The “Pacte ESRI-2030” strategy was construed as a direct and pragmatic translation of the various recommendations detailed in the report published by the Special Commission on the Development Model. Higher Education was immediately recognised as a key lever for change and transformation, and as such the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation embarked indefatigably on the collective elaboration of a higher education policy resting on resilience, ethics, innovation, internationalisation, empowerment, and social responsibility. The result of this strategic move was indeed phenomenal and resulted in the deep transformation of the HE topography in Morocco. In less than two years the twelve public universities managed to deliver 1037 new-generation first-degree programmes and inaugurate 63 centres for excellence (Tamayouz Centres) putting on offer 113 innovative courses open to distinguished students within open-access institutions.
The LMD package was fully adopted now by incorporating the ECTS system in evaluation to strengthen student exchange programmes, particularly with universities within the EU. A series of consultation and exchange meetings were held all over Morocco to promote the new national strategy in higher education. Morocco’s international academic community was particularly appraised and invited to contribute to this national synergy taking place on the level of higher education.
With the implementation of the Pacte ESRI-2030 plan, Morocco announces the profound transformation of its higher education ecosystem in line with the guidelines elaborated in the New Development Model General Report. With this transformation, Moroccan universities may in less than three or four years (if the current tempo of transformation is sustained) stand in full alignment with the standards required for the delivery of up-to-date world-class academic services.
The fact that there has hardly been any resistance to this transformation on the part of faculty and students has in part been indicative of the deeply shared conviction regarding the necessity to reorient the mission of higher education in a country aspiring to entrench its position as a leading regional economic model based on new technologies, high-end service skills and qualified human resources. Morocco’s current geo-economic position at the crossroads of two adjacent continents and multiple cultures induces policymakers at the highest level to adopt plans for economic growth that must in the short term reverberate at the planetary level.
Higher education is a sector of primary importance that cuts across other areas of priority in terms of the Kingdom’s development. Most issues as related to productivity, sustainability, industry, technology, diversity, resilience, and management find their strongest echo in the curricula of Morocco’s public institutions. The commitment to excellence in Moroccan public universities is no longer a choice. The Kingdom must redeploy its human potential in the most efficient ways possible to secure permanent economic growth in global contexts marked by growing mutations and rivalry. Morocco’s universities have now the possibility to elaborate and implement academic programmes in multiple languages, including Chinese. This linguistic freedom will certainly empower graduates to occupy leading roles in different regions of the globe and with that contribute to the strengthening of Morocco’s position as an international hub for learning, training, and services.
With the recent transformation of the HE ecosystem in Morocco, Moroccan universities are however expected to adjust their performance indicators to those upholding the best standards in world-class universities. For this move to take place, Moroccan academic institutions are required to review a series of administrative and academic practices that no longer keep abreast of the challenges the Kingdom is determined to overcome in the years ahead. National public universities must implement the necessary procedures and strategies that will speed up the internationalisation of public academic institutions.
The first step to take in the process of internationalising universities is to diversify faculty and be open to the services of international academics and experts worldwide. The number of highly qualified Moroccans living abroad may by far exceed 400,000 individuals, which represents an extremely competent community of talented individuals, qualified to serve as a robust lever of transformation within the Moroccan HE ecosystem.
The cultural, linguistic, and professional diversity of this community is now recognised on several occasions and at various governmental levels as an added value in terms of the human capital Morocco would engage and redeploy in its future programmes of national development. In October 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Innovation organised in partnership with the CNRST and the CCME an unprecedented international meeting calling for all Moroccan competencies based abroad to gather around the Pacte ESRI-2030 vision to accelerate the transformation of public universities in Morocco.
This meeting was an invitation for local and international scholars to join in the exercise of reviewing and empowering the dynamics of Moroccan academia. Last October 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via its Department of Moroccans Living Abroad (MLA) organised an important meeting guided by the urgency to develop a mechanism to mobilise Moroccan international competencies in cross-cutting areas of expertise. Universities are the most natural and spacious habitat for such international experts to engage in the making and transfer of knowledge across geographies and borders.
Internationalising the Moroccan public university entails a local commitment to international quality. The renovation and revamping of academic catalogues together with the implementation of up-to-date regulations and procedures provide a primary context for possibilities of supra-territorial academic and institutional exchanges. The history of Moroccan higher education institutions (HEIs) is relatively recent and accounts for the absence or frailty of a culture that prioritises international competitiveness and attractivity for international students and scholars.
The participation of Moroccan universities in international rankings such as QS World University Rankings (QS) and Times Higher Education (THE) dates to recent years only, but the fact that some of these universities have already started to figure in the overall world university rankings is illustrative of the strategies being put in place here and there among the twelve public universities. There is still a long way to go for Moroccan public HEIs to find a niche among some of the best-performing universities worldwide. International visibility depends on the availability of efficient exchange schemes for students, academics, and administrative staff as well as on the elaboration of teaching and research programmes in foreign languages, particularly in English.
Moroccan academic institutions are geo-strategically well-placed to attract far more international students north and south of the Mediterranean than they do at present if efforts are ramped up to implement the standards of world-class education. The increase in the use of English in teaching and research will help enhance the international visibility of Moroccan universities especially in international university rankings. The improvement and strengthening of national exchange initiatives such as FINCOME may also serve to hire more Moroccan competencies living abroad, and as such help speed up the process of the internationalisation of national university structures.
The Moroccan community of competencies living abroad is sometimes qualified as the Kingdom’s 13th region to highlight the national and natural attachment of this community to their country of origin. Whatever qualification is used, this community represents a powerhouse in terms of professional experience and human capital for which the Kingdom is in urgent need.
The best-performing universities in international rankings seem to converge at cross-cutting levels of governance, scholarship, innovation, sustainability, and education. The challenge for all top-ranked universities is to preserve quality and performance and keep abreast of global mutations as are occasioned by international policies, technological advances, and macroeconomic trends. There is now a tendency to view these universities as translations of what I qualify as the New Global University (NGU), which is defined by its global scope in terms of its mission, organisation, and performance. Moroccan universities are placed face to face with the urgency to implement the NGU model within which the elements of internationalisation and cross-cultural exchanges play pivotal roles. Moroccan public universities are at the start of a long-haul journey of transformation, but diverse opportunities are strewn on either side of the pathway for change. Among such opportunities is the prospective reality that Moroccan public universities could serve as warehouses of human capital for the African continent and the Mediterranean in the few years to come.
