Higher Education in Morocco: A Guest Blog from Mike Holland and Kana Shiota

As promised, here is the guest blog from Mike and Kana, our resident higher ed gurus!

During our meeting with the department of higher education, we were granted with a comprehensive presentation on how the country’s reform efforts have aimed to provide links to the socio-economic world and to help foster international cooperation.  Fortunate for us, the department of higher education was spoiled with English speakers, allowing our dear translator, Rita, some brief, well-deserved rest.

Much like what we had been hearing throughout our previous meetings, the challenge for higher education in Morocco has to do with quality.  This challenge is in many ways the by-product of having a system in which citizens receive free admission to public universities.  As much of our prior research has shown, free education usually means compromising quality.  Unfortunately, the system of higher education in Morocco is not an exception to this rule.  93% of all higher education students are at free public institutions, but these institutions offer poor quality and few economic returns. 

Our presentation started with a snapshot of the country’s higher education system, which includes 15 public universities, 197 private institutions a host of other vocational schools and even one American-international university. 

Efforts to reform higher education as a result of the National Charter (and a later consolidation of the charter) included the following principles: (1) structures (including increased autonomy for individual universities), (2) pedagogy (including renovated curricula and renewed approaches), (3) new mission (based on an entrepreneurial structure), and (4) adequate training for employment (so as to provide a practical link to the labor market which has been absent for decades).

All of these principles were designed to reform a system that was much too rigid for the 21^st century.  Major accomplishments of the reform included a new curricular focus on Information and Computer Technology (ICT), increased emphasis on research among faculty and the transformation of that research into practice, and expanded opportunities for Moroccan universities to participate in exchange programs with other universities all over the world. 

One of the most exciting changes to the system in our opinion was the adoption of the Europe’s Bologna process for awarding degrees to graduates.  Rather than offer diplomas to graduates that are only meaningful to Moroccan employers, universities can now present graduates with B.A.s, M.A.s and Ph.Ds, which allows them to transfer credits, conduct research and enter an international labor force much more seamlessly.   

One of the issues which was not discussed was the issue of equality. In Morocco, there are two tracks: the technical and general.  The technical has a quota system (testing to get in) and attracts the elite (middle and upper class), while the general is open to all, thus accounting for 86% of all university students.  Not surprisingly, the general track has a higher unemployment rate than the technical track.  While we wanted to ask more questions about this important issue of equality and their strategies to address this, unfortunately we ran out of time. We were escorted out of a beautiful courtyard, and rode away on our preschool bus to our next destination: pre-school!