Ibn Zohr University concluded two institutional partnership agreements with leading Canary Islands universities at a ceremony held in Laayoune on Tuesday, in a development that extends Morocco-Spain academic cooperation into the southern provinces. University President Nabil Hmina signed both conventions, which build on a partnership dynamic that has been active since the start of the year.
The first agreement was signed with María del Mar Tavío Pérez, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It provides for cooperation in applied research, clinical research and technological innovation, with Ibn Zohr’s Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Laayoune serving as the Moroccan counterpart. The second agreement was concluded with Francisco García Rodríguez, President of the University of La Laguna. It covers interdisciplinary scientific cooperation in medical humanities, narrative medicine, clinical ethics and anthropology, and provides for student and researcher mobility, joint research projects and the creation of an inter-university structure dedicated to medical humanities.
Hmina noted that the two Canary Islands institutions had already concluded cooperation conventions with Ibn Zohr earlier in the year, covering the blue economy, climate change, water resource management, tourism, artificial intelligence and sports sciences through a partnership with a Canary Islands technological institute. The Laayoune agreements add a medical and humanistic dimension to a relationship that is growing in both scope and institutional depth.
García Rodríguez described the partnership as opening new avenues of cooperation, observing that the two Canary Islands public universities already work together on climate change, tourism management, energy and water scarcity. He noted that the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra and Dakhla-Oued Eddahab regions face challenges and opportunities similar to those of the Canaries, given their geographic proximity, and expressed confidence that the agreements would produce joint projects of benefit to both territories.
During their visit to the Sahara city, the Spanish rectors discussed with the Wali of the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region prospects for expanding cooperation between the southern provinces and the Canary Islands institutions. They also visited the College of Medicine and Pharmacy and the Higher School of Technology in Laayoune.
The agreements are part of Morocco’s broader effort to deepen academic partnerships with Spanish institutions, having previously established cooperation frameworks at universities in Córdoba and Tarragona.
