New Casablanca campus for private university

Université Internationale de Casablanca, a Laureate universities network institution, plans to open a new campus in Casablanca catering for 12,000 students.

This was announced in Casablanca on 24 February by former US president Bill Clinton, who is honorary chancellor of Laureate International Universities.

Accredited by the Moroccan Ministry of Education, Université Internationale de Casablanca (UIC) was the first multidisciplinary private university in Casablanca and the first institution in the Laureate International Universities network located in North Africa.

Morocco has the University of Al Karaouine, which has been running for more than 1,000 years and is considered the oldest continuously operating university in the world.

But currently the country’s public universities are very crowded, leading to poor quality and a mismatch between graduate capabilities and job market needs, according to a report published last September and titled Moroccan Higher Educational System: Overcrowding and free open access.

The report revealed that five higher education institutions were critically overcrowded, exceeding their carrying capacity by 200%.

Morocco has more than 48 higher education institutions in urban centres across the country. There are 14 public universities with around 230,000 students and many private institutions, according to the Researching Virtual Initiatives in Education project.

UIC believes the new campus will support national efforts to enhance access to higher education and contribute to producing graduates with the skills the economy needs.

The university, which was created through a partnership between Laureate and Societé Maroc Emirats Arabes Unis de Development, will accommodate more than 12,000 students in what it calls the ‘state-of-the-art’ new campus.

The university provides undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in accounting, business, engineering, finance, health sciences, hospitality management, industrial engineering, information technology, management, marketing, mechanical engineering, physiotherapy, and sports management.

The Laureate International Universities network now has 750,000 students enrolled in more than 65 campus-based and online universities in 29 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. It owns institutions in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and UIC in North Africa, but has no presence in Sub-Saharan Africa.