Higher Education in Morocco

The sector of education, when addressed carefully and wisely by the government, can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction by which any country can move millions of steps forward leaving behind it countries, which have not taken advantage of this weapon, lagged behind. Whilst primary and secondary education represent the pillars of the country’s socio-economic development, Higher Education as one component of the educational system, constitutes the cornerstone of this development as it broadens its people’s opportunities to ‘know’ and use ‘the knowledge’ they have learned to open various horizons to the ambitions of the country to be achieved. Besides coping with some terminological issues related to the domain of higher education and providing a brief history of higher education in Morocco, and with respect to the Moroccan context, the present report will attempt to let light go through the most typical and hypersensitive issues that govern any higher education system, viz. reforms, methodology, cost sharing, policies, division of sectors; public and private, and the phenomenon of Brain drain; its factors and potential solutions.

Historically, education has always been the springboard for socioeconomic development of nations. Undoubtedly, education proved to be the catalyst of change and the front wagon that drives with it all the other wagons pertaining to other dynamic sectors. In effect, the role of education can be seen to provide pupils with the curriculum and hidden curriculum skills alike; teaching skills that will prepare them physically, mentally and socially for the world of work in later life. In Morocco, the country spends over 26% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education. Unfortunately, though this number is important, Moroccan education (primary, secondary and higher education alike) still suffers from the mismatch between the state expenditures on education and the general product in reality. In this article, an attempt is made to touch on some relevant issues pertaining to higher education with special reference to Morocco. First, it provides some tentative definitions, mission and functions of university and higher education. Second, it gives a historical sketch of the major reforms that took place in Morocco as well as the major changes pertaining to these reforms respectively. Third, it provides a general overview of the history of higher education in Morocco, it also tackles an issue related to governance in higher education which is cost sharing. Fourth, it delves into the history of English Language Teaching (ELT), lists some characteristics of the English Departments in Morocco. Fifth, it discusses the issue of private vs. public higher education. Last, but not least, it tackles the issue of Brain Drain.

Higher Education of Social Science, 2018

The present article is a reflection on the Moroccan Higher education system. It attempted to describe the state of affairs (reality) of this dubious system and suggests amendments to account for the impoverishing inconveniences. The discussion is initiated by the discrepancy between official’s communique and the reality with regard educational reform, taking it through the quality of teaching and assessment, students’ commitments, scientific research limitations. The second part of the reflection centers its concern on introducing a new framework to improve the Moroccan education system. It sheds light on new teachers’ roles, up-to-date administrative engineering and governance, need for compulsory in-service professional development, and the urgent major conceptual and practical departure from the previous old educational policy and practices.

2018

DOI: 10.21276/sjhss.2018.3.6.4 Abstract: Reform of educational institutions is an ongoing process which constantly molds and refits curricula, teaching methodologies, and infrastructures to new content and shapes in order to meet the needs of continuously changing communities. Congruent with such statement, Morocco, as other states elsewhere, has undergone several reforms the last of which was in the academic year 2003/2004 with the introduction of the LMD system (Licence, Master, and Doctorate) to higher education. Such reform and its influence on English language teaching are the main concern of the current study. Informed by policy documents and evidence drawn from qualitative data collected through means of observations and interviews of students at Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Sais, Fez, the study revealed that, on the one hand, the new reform has brought an innovative curriculum; however, a number of acute problems impeded the effectiveness of the reform. The problem...

International Journal of Higher Education, 2021

The issue of the university's models of governance is of cardinal importance and provokes great controversy. Academic literature has referred to different models or classifications of university governance. A few articles address the issue of governance models in Moroccan universities. Here, we aimed to highlight the governance model currently adopted by Moroccan universities, adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, through reading and analysis of the legislative texts and official reports that govern higher education in Morocco. We found that the governance of higher education evolved with Law 01.00 of the year 2000 from a model of governance controlled by the State to a model of governance supervised by the State. As a result, the autonomy of Moroccan universities has been strengthened, and stakeholder involvement has broadened. It is a mixed model that brings together to some extent and to different degrees, characteristics of the "academic" model, the "political" model, the "bureaucratic" model, and the "stakeholder model." However, given the multiple challenges and pressures that Moroccan universities face, such as employability and funding problems, we believe that they must change the paradigm to adopt a governance model that combines respect for academic values with contribution to the nation's socioeconomic development: a more flexible model, more inclusive, more participatory, and more entrepreneurial, that encourages self-employment and maintains a global vision and a regional vocation, oriented towards local development. This research is a first attempt at understanding Moroccan university governance models. It enriches the theoretical literature on the crisis of Moroccan higher education-mainly the issue of governance models-and opens the way to new studies that aim to improve governance and the quality of higher education.

Hicham Alaoui & Robert Springborg, eds., The Political Ecomomy of Education in the Arab World, 2021

This article investigates how university reforms are negotiated between different domestic actors and international donor organizations in two countries that differ widely in their higher education system and their structures of governance. The comparison of Egypt, the host of one of the largest university system in the region, and Morocco, a middle-size country in terms of higher education, provides critical insights on how different political regimes in the MENA region cope with domestic and international pressure for reform, while channeling this pressure in ways that do not threating their existing order.

Morocco is undoubtedly one of the few countries in the world that is spending over 25% of its yearly budget on education and employing a true army of educators and functionaries in the sector but not reaching the expected results of equality, equity and quality. STAT AMOUNT DATE RANK HISTORY % of GDP 5.38% 2009 48th out of 118 % of government spending 25.71% 2008 5th out of 45 Proportion of GDP 5.38% 2009 48th out of 118 The political will is definitely there, but the way, for some unknown reason, is lacking even after the implementation of a ten-year reform 2000-2009 initiated by the Special Committee on Education and Training (COSEF) through the National Charter for Education and Training (CNEF). This, sadly, proved to be, somewhat a flop, in the end, with the government indirectly attesting its failure by adopting an emergency plan to salvage the whole enterprise (2009-2011). It goes without saying that Morocco with its establishment, political parties, forces in presence and the population, at large, want to see the educational system overhauled to become productive, at home, and competitive, on the world scene. The reason these well-intentioned reforms did not achieve the expected results are threefold: 1- Objectives too numerous and too general : the COSEF reform approach was too spread out, too fuzzy and too ideological, a times, to achieve results ; 2- The reform failed to build within the system a viable evaluation scheme to guide the process and avoid potential pitfalls on the way ; and 3- The reform failed to identify, in the first place, the congenital ailments of the Moroccan educational system to lead the reform on the right path. However, all is not gloomy, for the country has, in the meantime, achieved some important success in the EFA front, since the Dakar Conference of 2000, because the EFA goals were well-articulated and their implementation mechanism clearly outlined and equipped with the necessary evaluation devices.

In the article I show how countries with a relative low performance in higher education like Egypt and Morocco are informed and worked by the forces of internationalization in this domain. I compare the path of university reforms in both countries over the last decade; from their emergence on the agenda to their implementation. Through the lenses of a public policy approach the paper illustrates how higher education is subject to a complex negotiation process between international organizations and domestic policymakers. The transfer of international models like grant-based funding and the Bologna process has become the driving force of these reforms. But when imposed through a top-down approach these models do not necessarily bring about the outcome they promise. They rather illustrate an example of distorted internationalization.

Morocco is undoubtedly one of the few countries in the world that is spending over 25% of its yearly budget on education and employing a true army of educators and functionaries in the sector but not reaching the expected results of equality, equity and quality. STAT AMOUNT DATE RANK HISTORY % of GDP 5.38% 2009 48th out of 118 % of government spending 25.71% 2008 5th out of 45 Proportion of GDP 5.38% 2009 48th out of 118 The political will is definitely there, but the way, for some unknown reason, is lacking even after the implementation of a ten-year reform 2000-2009 initiated by the Special Committee on Education and Training (COSEF) through the National Charter for Education and Training (CNEF). This, sadly, proved to be, somewhat a flop, in the end, with the government indirectly attesting its failure by adopting an emergency plan to salvage the whole enterprise (2009-2011). It goes without saying that Morocco with its establishment, political parties, forces in presence and the population, at large, want to see the educational system overhauled to become productive, at home, and competitive, on the world scene. The reason these well-intentioned reforms did not achieve the expected results are threefold: 1- Objectives too numerous and too general : the COSEF reform approach was too spread out, too fuzzy and too ideological, a times, to achieve results ; 2- The reform failed to build within the system a viable evaluation scheme to guide the process and avoid potential pitfalls on the way ; and 3- The reform failed to identify, in the first place, the congenital ailments of the Moroccan educational system to lead the reform on the right path. However, all is not gloomy, for the country has, in the meantime, achieved some important success in the EFA front, since the Dakar Conference of 2000, because the EFA goals were well-articulated and their implementation mechanism clearly outlined and equipped with the necessary evaluation devices.

Education Policies in Morocco: Can the Government Fix What It Broke?

As the guardian of the country’s institutional framework, the Moroccan government controls all aspects of society. This implies accountability for economic growth and recessions, the quality and development of human capital, and, in turn, the education sector. Yet, Morocco’s education policies have been tremendously unsuccessful. And in the context of the existing institutional framework, it is not at all certain that the government authorities are capable of repairing what they themselves have broken: those responsible for executing the new reforms in Morocco’s education system are part of the fragmented institutional framework. Therefore, reforming education in Morocco must first begin by reforming the larger institutional framework within which it operates. In other words, all the government’s main institutions as well as its economic and political policies must first be reviewed before lasting positive changes can be implemented in the education sector.