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Higher Education and Research in Morocco

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What are the variant appellations for Morocco? Officially, the Kingdom of Morocco, but the term Morocco is by far the most common.

What is the geographical location of Morocco? Morocco is located on the northwestern tip of Africa.

What are the borders of Morocco? Morocco is bordered by Algeria in the west, Mauritania in the south, the Mediterranean Sea in the north and overlooks Spain and Portugal across the Gibraltar straits (Worth mentioning here the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in the north of Morocco) and the Atlantic Ocean in the west.

Higher Education is considered to be one of the key strategic sectors Morocco is relying upon to achieve its political stability, economic prosperity and cultural renaissance.

The Higher Education sector in Morocco is run by Driss Ouaouicha, Minister delegate for Higher Education.  

Higher Education in Morocco includes private institutions,  privately-run institutions and public institutions.  Public Higher education institutions can be broken down into two types: Open-access and limited-access.

On completion of the secondary school program (baccalaureate/higher secondary certificate), students can pursue their studies in many open-access ( ) higher education institutions. They are, however, required to have high baccalaureate grades and take a competitive entrance exam to attend limited-access () institutions. As for private and privately-run () higher education institutions, students may be required to sit for an entrance exam/interview, as well as pay registration and scholarship fees. 

[September 2020] Morocco implements the 4-year Bachelor system in Higher Education instead of the current 3-year system.

[November 15, 2019] Morocco signs revised regional convention on recognition of Higher Education studies, diplomas and degrees in Africa (UNESCO).

[March 6, 2019] The Presidents of Universities Conference  (CPU) in El Jadida have expressed their support for the 31st clause of a draft law on education that paves the way to the introduction (or re-introduction) of foreign languages as means of instruction for scientific and technical subjects.

[23,000] Number of students from sub-Saharan Africa who have graduated from Moroccan universities in the last [20] years. [12,000] students from [47] African countries are currently pursuing their higher studies in Morocco (Mohamed Methqal, President of AMCI, the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation, announced October 24, 2019, during a conference in Sochi, Russia, under the theme “Russia-Africa: Science, Education, Training, and Innovation for Economic Development).

[40 years] The time span of the last Arabization experience.  A clause in the new Education Framework Law (# 51.27) stipulates that Arabic be dropped as a the language of instruction for science subjects.  “The language that that does not serve as a medium for research and lacks appropriate technical terminology cannot succeed in pre-university education.” (Khalid Samadi, State Secretary for Higher Education, August 23, 2019). Until now, students take Science subjects in Arabic during their pre-university schooling, but once at university, where science subjects are taught in French, they find it difficult to cope.

[3] Number of Moroccan universities who made it to the top 1,000 according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019: Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University of Fez, Mohammed V University of Rabat and Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech. The three ranked between [801] and [1,000].

“Why do some public universities have to take the brunt of overcrowding? A case in point is Ibn Zohr University which accepts students from 4 southern regions and has a student population nearing [120,000].  The question is how do we tackle the problem of overcrowding?”  

“New Universities are to be built. Adding new classrooms here and there and soliciting the help of teaching assistants from outside the university are make-shift, short-term approaches and would not solve the problem of overcrowding.”

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Once in a while moroccodemia conducts a survey on a particular issue pertaining to Higher education in Morocco. Please take a few minutes to complete  this survey on the challenges facing public universities in Morocco.

We welcome your contributions in the form of books & articles, images & videos, dates and figures and any other materials that will enhance this website and which will undoubtedly benefit moroccodemia visitors (students, academics, administrators, employers and the civil society).

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