Higher education and research agreement for closer cooperation

The Moroccan and Tunisian authorities in charge of higher education and research have signed an agreement to encourage the establishment of a university network and greater student mobility.

The agreement was signed under the Ibn Khaldoun cooperation programme in Gammarth, Tunis, by Khalid Samadi and Selim Khalbous, respectively Moroccan and Tunisian secretaries of state for higher education and research, reported Libération of Casablanca.

The programme focuses on the funding of joint higher education and research projects, setting up long-term partnerships between universities and research institutions, and multi-party cooperation through coordination of experts, teacher training, exchanges of doctoral students, teachers, young researchers and administrative personnel, as well as common research and innovation.

In the 2018-19 academic year mobility grants will be allocated to 200 Moroccan and Tunisian postgraduates to specialise in medicine and engineering studies, and a call for bids will be launched for projects of common interest in fields such as renewable energies, water and the environment, reported Libération.

An inaugural conference of university presidents from the two countries will take place in Agadir, Morocco, in December, which will discuss how to take advantage of digital technologies to promote higher education and scientific research.

Joint research projects are to be launched at the end of July, post-doc mobility programmes and Moroccan-Tunisian research laboratories are to be established at the start of the new university year. Measures to simplify exchanges of technical data and evaluation of scientific research also figure in the programme, reported Libération. – Compiled by Jane Marshall.

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.