The five members of the Arab Maghreb Union - Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Mauritania - have agreed to create a website for all universities and research centers in the region and to re-activate a union of Maghrebi universities.

This was announced during a meeting of the ministerial committee of senior higher education officials from countries of the Arab Maghreb Union, held in Rabat, Morocco, on 16 February to study the prospects of developing new technologies in the Maghribi region.

The Maghribi website will comprise databases on legislation covering higher education and scientific research as well as the research findings and innovations of Maghribi researchers.

The plan is to boost the Union of Maghribi Universities, academic institutions and research in the region through twinning projects, and the meeting called for setting up of a network of North African research in priority fields including alternative and renewable energies

Participants in the meeting discussed ways that could bring university curricula closer and facilitate the movement of students between universities and research institutions in the region.

Speaking to University World News Sadallah Boubaker-Khaled, a professor of mathematics at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Algiers, welcomed the developments which he considered "one step on the hard road to promote cooperation between Maghribi universities".

Cooperation will also be aimed at enhancing the level of scientific research in all fields, facilitating exchange of experiences and programmes, and upgrading and developing higher education to address the needs of societies in the Maghreb.

Boubaker-Khaled called for linking the Union of Maghribi Universities with other regional and international unions such as the Jordan-based association of Arab universities and the Morocco-based Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World .

The University of Al-karaouine, considered the oldest continuously-operating degree-granting university in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records, is in Morocco. But it is not included in recent lists of top universities in the world.

Boubaker-Khaled concluded that if they are managed properly and adequate financial support is provided, collaborative projects could help to upgrade Maghribi universities as well as promote the development of knowledge and human capacity in the Arab Maghreb Union.

COMMENT:
This is a substantial addition to the Maghreb union. Indeed science and art can achieve what politics couldn't.

Mohamed Cherif Benzerari

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