Marrakech – The council of Abdelmalek Essaâdi University has approved the creation of a Faculty of Economics and Management at the Aït Kamra university complex in Al Hoceima. The decision came during an ordinary session held Tuesday in the northern Rif city, chaired by university president Bouchta El Moumni.
The new faculty is designed to diversify the university’s academic offerings and align its programs with the socioeconomic demands of the Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima region, which the university considers Morocco’s second-largest economic hub.
The move also advances national objectives of “territorial equity and equal opportunity” in access to higher education, according to a university press release.
Speaking to Morocco’s state-owned news agency MAP, El Moumni described the projects as part of implementing “royal orientations on territorial justice and advanced regionalization,” alongside ministerial directives to expand training and scientific research across the region.
The new institution, he added, will “strengthen the economic outreach of the region” by producing qualified graduates in economics and management who can meet labor market demands and keep pace with the country’s economic shifts.
With its establishment, the number of higher education institutions under Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in Al Hoceima will rise to six, covering science and technology, law, economics and management, engineering, commerce, and business administration.
The university council also reviewed the institution’s 2025-2027 action plan and continuing education programs during Tuesday’s session.
49 new institutions to ease campus overcrowding
The decision follows a government council approval of proposals to create new university institutions, restructure existing ones, and rename others. The university council had initially endorsed these proposals on July 28, 2025.
The Al Hoceima faculty is one piece of a far broader restructuring of Morocco’s university landscape. Minister of Higher Education Azzedine El Midaoui informed the Chamber of Advisors on May 19 that the first phase of a new national university map includes 26 new institutions. Their creation decrees are “in the final stages of validation,” he told lawmakers.
A second phase will bring 23 additional establishments, putting the nationwide total at 49 new university institutions.
El Midaoui framed the overhaul as a direct response to chronic campus overcrowding. The objective, he told the chamber, is to “address the problem of congestion while preserving existing structures for the benefit of students.”
Breaking up mega-universities to serve students better
A new generation of institutions will be spread across the national territory to respond to “local, regional, and national needs, as well as global labor market demands.”
The reform draws its legal basis from framework law 51.17 – specifically Article 12 – and from the higher education law’s Articles 5 and 8. These provisions mandate a master plan for higher education to serve as a tool for “strategic planning and institutional foresight,” the minister explained.
One of the most urgent cases involves Ibn Zohr University, which currently spans roughly 55% of Morocco’s national territory and enrolls around 170,000 students. Under the new map, it would be divided into five separate universities – in Dakhla, Laâyoune, Guelmim, Aït Melloul, and Agadir. Ouarzazate would also be transferred to the university system of its administrative region.
The reform package includes governance texts alongside social measures for students covering housing, transportation, dining services, and financing, El Midaoui noted.
The ministry will also incorporate observations from the Higher Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research, which delivered its opinion on the project roughly a week before the minister’s parliamentary appearance.
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