Like a number of countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and as part of an attempt to improve graduate employability while expanding access to quality higher education, Morocco is encouraging increased collaboration with foreign educational providers, with a number of international schools already in the pipeline. A handful of agreements recently signed with France, for instance, are expected to allow for the establishment of new universities.
The École Centrale de Casablanca, expected to open by September 2014, will be modelled after one of France's top-flight engineering universities, the École Centrale de Paris, while plans are also under way to establish a Mediterranean Institute for Logistics and Transport in Tangiers, in collaboration with French École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. A school of architecture is to be integrated into the International University of Rabat (Université Internationale de Rabat, UIR).
These partnerships have come at a time when the public sector is finding it difficult to accommodate all the secondary school graduates seeking further education. The baccalaureate pass rate is up, with 104,112 students receiving their degree in 2009, more than double the 51,251 recorded in 1990. In 2012 the number of entrants to public universities increased by 20%, and some 520,000 students were enrolled in higher education programmes (including universities and other schools).
To mobilise funding and attract investors, a number of institutions are being developed under public-private partnerships (PPPs). These include the UIR, a partnership between a group of Moroccan professors and the government-owned Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion, which today has 1000 students and aims to attract 5000 by 2017. Similarly, the International University of Casablanca (Université Internationale de Casablanca, UIC) is a PPP between Morocco's Société Maroc-Emirats Arabes Unis de Développement and US-based Laureate International Universities. In late May, the UIC announced that it had signed a partnership with the Institut National des Postes et des Télécommunications and University Chouaib Doukkali El Jadida to boost collaboration in subjects covering telecoms and ICT through student and professor exchanges.
Complementing these universities are more than 200 privately owned institutions that offer higher education courses and certificates, with many providing double diplomas in partnership with foreign schools. Despite their growing popularity, they account for just 10% of graduates, and it can still be difficult for them to obtain accreditation from the state.
However, these schools are receiving increased support in the form of funding and development aid. The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, will inject $7m into the Institut des Hautes Études de Management (HEM), a Moroccan private business school. The money will be used to finance HEM's plans to expand its presence beyond Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Fes and Tangiers; build new campuses in each of Fes and Oujda; and carry out upgrades at the Rabat campus.
These institutions work in partnership with private sector businesses, which recruit at these schools and develop curricula and special training programmes in line with their needs and those of the job market. Still, challenges remain for private sector players in higher education, particularly if they are seeking the status of a university. According to Abdelhafid Debbagh, secretary-general at the Ministry of Education, to be approved by the state to operate as a private university, an institution must have at least three schools, one of which is private, and a minimum of 30% of the staff must be permanently employed. Moreover, to maintain private university status, an institution must have attracted at least 2000 students within the first three years, as well as received state accreditation for a minimum of half of taught specialities.
Nonetheless, with a rising number of students looking to attend post-secondary school programmes, substantial opportunities exist in the provision of higher education. These institutions also have the opportunity to contribute to the economic development of Morocco by providing students with training that is demanded by the job market.
© Oxford Business Group 2013
