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Rabat – Laurent Champaney, Director General of France’s Arts et Métiers, acknowledged Morocco’s growing role as a major talent pool for France’s elite higher education and companies.
Champaney, who is also the vice president of the Conference of Grandes Écoles, told Le Monde that Morocco is “indeed a talent pool for our grandes écoles and for our companies.”
“But there is also increasing competition from Morocco itself,” he added.
His remarks come as part of a detailed report, in which Le Monde highlighted how thousands of Moroccan students are increasingly admitted to top French grandes schools while also becoming highly sought-after by employers.
The report also sheds light on the preparatory classes at the Lycée Mohammed VI d’Excellence in Benguerir, which sends half of its total second-year students each year into France’s elite higher education programs.
Quoting the school’s director, Christophe Boeckel, Le Monde pointed to how the school presents its students to the top 10 French engineering schools.
“Since their opening in 2015, the preparatory classes at the Lycée Mohammed VI d’Excellence have sent no fewer than 70 Moroccan students to the École Polytechnique campus in Palaiseau (Essonne), including 20 in 2024 alone and 17 in 2025. Nearly as many have gone on to the Écoles Centrales, the Mines schools, or the ENS,” Le Monde wrote.
This is not the first report to shed light on the importance of Morocco’s preparatory classes. In March, Le Figaro’s first-ever ranking of foreign preparatory classes shows Morocco dominating the list of prep schools for top French universities.
Morocco’s Lydex (LM6E), located in Benguerir, leads the scientific ranking. Over the past three years, 17.7% of its students gained admission to the École Polytechnique – France’s most prestigious engineering school.
In 2025 alone, 17 Lydex students were admitted, following 16 in 2024 and 20 in 2023. The school offers both the MP and PT tracks.
Other Moroccan institutions also include Lymed in Tetouan and Rabat’s Lycée Al Zahrawi.
Data from Campus France, the agency in charge of promoting higher education in France, said Moroccan students continue to rank among the largest foreign contingents admitted to École Polytechnique.
The European country also boasts more than 43,000 Morocan student pursuing higher education, placing Morocco among the top countries in international student enrollment.
Le Monde also highlighted an increasing competition in Morocco.
“Since the mid-2010s, elite private preparatory classes modeled on Benguerir’s system, which operates through a public private partnership, have expanded. There are now nearly 300 across the country,” Le Monde said.
It also recalled how five French grandes ecoles opened their campuses in the country since 2013, given the potential of Moroccan students.
More than 50% of Moroccan students in France study in universities, with a growing number turn to business schools (19%), a spokesperson from Campus France said in September last year.
Engineering schools attract 14% of Moroccan students.
