"The Moroccan government is fostering academic collaboration with French universities and helping them open campuses here," explains Thami Ghorfi, Dean of ESCA Business School in Casablanca. "Morocco is investing in higher education to meet the needs of its youth and the Moroccan and multinational businesses here." The country's university-level student population has grown by 40% in the last three years alone.
Engineers Above All
French engineering schools have always been prized partners here. The Moroccan government is hoping that its 10,000 Engineers program will produce just that many engineers per year to support the country's continued 5% annual growth.
The French Connection
National Institute of Postal and Telecommunications Studies (INPT) Director Bedreddine Benameur explains, "Many Moroccan academics study in France. Often they start programs with their alma maters upon their return. I studied at Supélec and now we have a joint Master's degree."
EMINES, the industrial management school at the new Mohamed VI Polytechnic University, was jointly founded by the Paris-based École des Mines. Additionally, the Moroccan Education Ministry recently signed an agreement to hire French science preparatory class teachers to train their Moroccan counterparts.
France Forever ?
What about Anglo-Saxon competitors? Moulay Ahmed Lamrani, President of HEEC School of Economics and Business, is realistic. He says, "Our ties will stay strong because of our shared language. Also, French professors cost one-third the price of American professors."
Hervé Riou, President of the Union of Science and Industrial Technique Professors (UPSTI), agrees. "Morocco won't switch to the Anglo-Saxon model. They are too different and the French educational model is already well-established, thanks in part to the Bologna Accord."
This fall alone has seen the launch of an EM Lyon Business School campus in Casablanca, the founding of the École Centrale Casablanca with the École Centrale Paris and the birth of the Euro-Mediterranean Insitute of Technology of Fez, a member of the French INSA network. University partnerships show no sign of slowing down.
