With a global outlook, universities can reach full potential

Higher education in Morocco has steadily evolved over the last seven decades since the inauguration of the first Moroccan modern public university in Rabat in 1957. Since then, national public universities have slowly grown in number: to date there are 12 public or state universities and a dozen more private or semi-public universities.

The Moroccan public university initially functioned as an academic pipeline, supplying public servants trained to serve in different administrative stations, mainly in the public sector.

Initially, Moroccan universities undertook their missions as well as they could manage to respond to the pressing demands of a nation aspiring to keep the levers of its political and national sovereignty in its own hands, and particularly after Morocco won its independence in 1956.

Because of the protectorate-driven prevalence of the French language, Morocco opted for the French university model, prioritising academic rigour mainly in theoretical science and other areas of scholarship such as the social sciences and humanities.

The implementation of a French-oriented higher education model in Morocco seems to have played a fundamental role in the foregrounding of the idea of the university in Morocco as a public and state-governed entity and, as such, this model explains in part the gradual and slow creation of newer public universities in different regions of the country.

For almost two decades, only two modern public universities dominated the topography of higher education in Morocco: Mohammed V University in Rabat, founded in 1957, and Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, established in Fes in 1975.

The constellation of the public universities that would eventually be established across the kingdom has indeed played a vital role in terms of responding to the needs of a growing community of students living hundreds of miles away from Fes or Rabat.

No one university would have had the means and capacity to cater for a population of students which rose from only 3,792 students in 1956 to around 40,000 in 1975, a year which also marked the inauguration of Hassan II University, the third modern public university to be established in Morocco. Now, Morocco caters to a community of more than 1,301,439 students.

At best the increase in the number of public universities embodied a breathless effort to catch up with demand from students all over Morocco. The move to meet the social demands of free education and places for all holders of baccalaureate diplomas has resulted in far more students being accommodated in what are referred to as open-access (as opposed to limited access) institutions, often in faculties of law, economics, humanities and faculties of fundamental science.

As a result, it has meant approximately 85% of the overall national mass of university students being crammed into programmes that were poorly linked to the dynamics of changing social and market trends in terms of employability, economic productivity and social adaptability.

The multiplication of state universities served to deepen the single public university model in the topography of Moroccan higher education and impeded the much desired but scarcely publicly articulated need to develop autonomous university structures, empowered to ensure high-end academic and research programmes.

Single national higher education model

The primacy of the single national higher education model has delayed and slowed the creation of private universities in Morocco and contributed to the dominance of the single national model of the university as an academic powerhouse designed to administer national qualifications and put into practice ministerial guidelines and policies.

As public institutions, Moroccan universities have remained, to date, state-dependent in terms of funds and have, as such, never seriously experimented with the idea of exercising autonomy in terms of generating the revenues needed to help them review their functions and internal regulations.

They were governed by outdated legal texts before the last reform inspired by the much-awaited national strategy: PACTE ESRI 2030.

As such, these public institutions have delivered very little in terms of flexible, up-to-date and adequate training programmes for a fast-changing jobs market and an increasingly value-driven ecosystem. In other words, the national higher education sector remained until the year 2023 indifferent to the multiple economic transformations and strategic shifts that have characterised Morocco’s evolving economy over the last three decades or more.

Nevertheless, the centralisation of the national higher education model has helped universities manage some of their academic and administrative tasks with ease and has created a mirror-like effect among universities in terms of the implementation of various procedural and managerial matters.

For example, national diplomas as delivered by state-run universities enjoy the same value and abide by the same regulatory norms, a fact which enables graduates to enjoy the privileges associated with holding a national diploma irrespective of which university seal is affixed to the document.

National and international agencies also find it fairly easy to screen Moroccan national diplomas, given that the number of public universities issuing certificates and degrees is small and, as such, these diplomas are all approved by a well-identified higher education body.

The replication of the single university model in various regions of the kingdom has, however, brought about a crippling environment characterised by redundant and unresourceful catalogues of academic programmes.

Before the implementation of the new national strategy in higher education (PACTE ESRI 2030), academics in Morocco remained for a long time insulated and unsusceptible to innovation, self-expression and initiative-taking.

A missed opportunity for change

Before the current academic year, the 12 public institutions acted and performed as a mega academic structure delivering similar degrees and qualifications and administering quasi-identical academic programmes which often failed to respond to local dynamics or international transformations.

The adoption of the one-model system for higher education in Morocco persisted even when the modular LMD system (licence, master, doctorate) took form in 2004.

The 2004 reform was most concerned with installing a modular system and rearranging academic calendars in terms of semesters over three years for a first degree (licence). A host of technical and procedural constraints accompanied the impetuous and radical transition from a traditional department-oriented system of learning to a modular and course-oriented teaching model.

Neither students nor faculty back then had a clear perception of the terminology put in place within the context of this transition.

The introduction of the 2004 reform terminology, mainly in French, gave way to controversy over an arsenal of terms such as ‘filière’, ‘module’, ‘élement de module’ and ‘cahiers des norms pédagogiques’, and that controversy dominated, meaning the goals of the reform remained indifferent to the reality of university structures that were facing exponential increases in student flows.

The national university reform back then gave the impression that the new nomenclatures were objectives in themselves in the absence of substantial transformations of academic content within a socio-economic context in full mutation.

Debates and meetings often centred around interpreting the defining terminology in regulatory texts rather than around the substance of course content. As a result, it took universities many years to adapt to the modular system and manage academic services as best they could.

Faculty members often complained about the difficulty of managing academic calendars and meeting the deadlines of semestrial exams, particularly in open-access colleges which had to do so for thousands of students.

Accelerated transformation

In April 2021, the Special Commission on the Development Model, established by a royal mandate in 2019, issued a general report in which it identified some of the key elements required to bring about and accelerate cross-sectoral structural transformation of Morocco’s ecosystem in a global context marked by economic competitiveness and technological rivalry.

The commission’s report articulated the kingdom’s ambition to renovate and empower its development apparatuses in the years to come to put in place a resilient programme for development that would serve as the principal frame of reference for all national stakeholders. Higher education was highlighted among the main sectors in which drastic and efficient transformations had to take place.

The PACTE ESRI 2030 strategy was construed as a direct and pragmatic translation of the various recommendations detailed in the report published by the Special Commission on the Development Model.

Higher education was immediately recognised as a key lever for change and transformation and, as such, the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation embarked on the collective elaboration of a higher education policy resting on resilience, ethics, innovation, internationalisation, empowerment and social responsibility.

Deep transformation

The result of this strategic move was phenomenal and resulted in the deep transformation of the higher education topography in Morocco. In less than two years the 12 public universities have managed to deliver 1,037 new-generation first-degree programmes and inaugurate 63 centres of excellence (Tamayouz Centres) offering 113 innovative courses open to distinguished students within open-access institutions.

The LMD package was fully adopted by incorporating the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System of evaluation to strengthen student exchange programmes, particularly with universities within the European Union.

A series of consultation and exchange meetings were held all over Morocco to promote the new national strategy in higher education. Morocco’s international academic community was invited to contribute to this national synergy taking place in higher education.

With the implementation of the PACTE ESRI 2030 plan, Morocco announced the profound transformation of its higher education ecosystem in line with the guidelines elaborated in the New Development Model General Report.

With this transformation, Moroccan universities may, in less than three or four years (if the current tempo of transformation is sustained), stand in full alignment with the standards required for the delivery of up-to-date world-class academic services.

The fact that there has hardly been any resistance to this transformation on the part of faculty and students has, in part, been indicative of the deeply shared conviction regarding the necessity to reorient the mission of higher education in a country aspiring to entrench its position as a leading regional economic model based on new technologies, high-end service skills and qualified human resources.

An international hub of learning

Morocco’s current geo-economic position at the crossroads of two adjacent continents and multiple cultures induces policy-makers at the highest level to adopt plans for economic growth that must, in the short term, reverberate at the planetary level.

Higher education is a sector of primary importance that cuts across other areas of priority in terms of the kingdom’s development. Most issues related to productivity, sustainability, industry, technology, diversity, resilience and management find their strongest echo in the curricula of Morocco’s public institutions.

The commitment to excellence in Moroccan public universities is no longer a choice. The kingdom must redeploy its human potential in the most efficient ways possible to secure permanent economic growth in global contexts marked by growing rivalry.

Morocco’s universities now have the possibility of elaborating and implementing academic programmes in multiple languages, including Chinese. This linguistic freedom will certainly empower graduates to occupy leading roles in different regions of the globe and with that contribute to the strengthening of Morocco’s position as an international hub for learning, training and services.

With the recent transformation of the higher education ecosystem, Moroccan universities are, however, expected to adjust their performance indicators to those upholding the best standards in world-class universities.

For this move to take place, Moroccan academic institutions are required to review a series of administrative and academic practices that no longer keep abreast of the challenges the kingdom is determined to overcome in the years ahead.

Harnessing the power of the diaspora

National public universities must implement the necessary procedures and strategies that will speed up the internationalisation of public academic institutions. The first step to take in the process of internationalising universities is to diversify faculty and be open to the services of international academics and experts worldwide.

The number of highly qualified Moroccans living abroad may exceed 400,000 and represents an extremely competent community of talented individuals, qualified to serve as a robust lever of transformation within the Moroccan higher education ecosystem.

The cultural, linguistic and professional diversity of this community has been recognised on several occasions and at various governmental levels as an added value in terms of the human capital Morocco would engage and redeploy in its future programmes of national development.

In October 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation organised, in partnership with the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique and the Council of the Moroccan Community Living Abroad, an unprecedented international meeting calling for all skilled Moroccans based abroad to gather around the PACTE ESRI 2030 vision to accelerate the transformation of public universities in Morocco.

This meeting was an invitation for local and international scholars to join in the exercise of reviewing and empowering the dynamics of Moroccan academia.

In October 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via its Department of Moroccans Living Abroad, organised an important meeting guided by the urgency to develop a mechanism to mobilise talented Moroccans living abroad in cross-cutting areas of expertise.

Universities are the most natural habitat for such international experts to engage in the making and transfer of knowledge across geographies and borders.

Internationalising the Moroccan public university entails a local commitment to international quality. The renovation and revamping of academic catalogues together with the implementation of up-to-date regulations and procedures provide a primary context for possibilities of supra-territorial academic and institutional exchanges.

The history of Moroccan higher education institutions is relatively recent and accounts for the absence or frailty of a culture that prioritises international competitiveness and attractiveness for international students and scholars.

The participation of Moroccan universities in international rankings such as the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings is fairly recent, but the fact that some of these universities have already started to figure in the overall world university rankings is illustrative of the strategies being put in place across the 12 public universities.

There is still a long way to go for Moroccan public higher education institutions to find a niche among some of the best-performing universities worldwide.

International visibility

International visibility depends on the availability of efficient exchange schemes for students, academics and administrative staff as well as on the availability of teaching and research programmes in foreign languages, particularly in English.

Moroccan academic institutions are geo-strategically well-placed to attract far more international students north and south of the Mediterranean than they do at present if efforts are ramped up to implement the standards of world-class education. An increase in the use of English in teaching and research will help enhance the international visibility of Moroccan universities, especially in international university rankings.

The improvement and strengthening of national exchange initiatives such as the International Forum of Moroccan Competencies Abroad (FINCOME) may also serve to hire more Moroccan experts living abroad and, as such, will help speed up the process of the internationalisation of national university structures.

The Moroccan community living abroad is sometimes referred to as the kingdom’s 13th region to highlight the national and natural attachment of this community. Whatever expression is used, this community represents a powerhouse in terms of professional experience and human capital for which the kingdom is in urgent need.

The best-performing universities in international rankings seem to converge at cross-cutting levels of governance, scholarship, innovation, sustainability and education. The challenge for all top-ranked universities is to preserve quality and performance and keep abreast of global changes as are occasioned by international policies, technological advances and macro-economic trends.

There is now a tendency to view these universities as translations of what I describe as the New Global University (NGU), which is defined by its global scope in terms of its mission, organisation and performance. Moroccan universities urgently need to implement the NGU model within which the elements of internationalisation and cross-cultural exchanges play pivotal roles.

Morocco’s public universities are at the start of a long-haul journey of transformation, but diverse opportunities are strewn on either side of the pathway to change. Among such opportunities is the prospect that Moroccan public universities could serve as powerhouses of human capital for the African continent and the Mediterranean in the years to come.

Dr Jamal E Benhayoun is vice-president of Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco. E-mail: jamalbenhayoun@gmail.com