Morocco, EU ink higher education support program deal

Morocco and the European Union (EU) signed, in Rabat on Wednesday, a 490-million-dirham program to support higher education, research, innovation, and mobility.

The program, which marks a notable step in the EU’s educational outreach, supports Morocco’s National Plan for Accelerating the Transformation of the Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation Ecosystem (ESRI 2030 Pact), meant to help Moroccan universities strengthen and internationalize higher education, research and innovation.

The Program also aims to promote the mobility of doctoral students in European universities through a grant of 50.42 million dirhams, with the aim of continuing to forge human, academic, and scientific links between Moroccans and Europeans.

The partnership, developed with the ministry of economy of finance, also aims to address several critical objectives, which include supporting Moroccan universities, promoting international exchanges in higher education, helping more medical students to study at European universities, and strengthening academic and scientific ties between Morocco and Europe.

Minister of Higher Education, Abdellatif Miraoui, who initialed the deal along with EU ambassador to Rabat Patricia Llombart Cussac, described as “exemplary” cooperation between Morocco and the EU in the field of higher education, and pointed out that strengthening human capital is at the heart of Morocco’s national priorities and an essential lever for its international influence.

He added that “the new scholarship recipients we celebrate today are ambassadors of Moroccan youth, bridges between cultures and civilizations, who are called to enrich their academic journeys in a spirit of openness and dialogue. The signing of the ‘ESRIM’ agreement reinforces our shared commitment to quality education through enhanced academic mobility and scientific research, in alignment with the PACTE ESRI 2030 orientations.”

For her part, Cussac said that “the European Union supports Morocco’s efforts, as it has embarked on an ambitious national plan to make higher education more international and to develop research and innovation, by offering students, graduates, researchers and teachers mobility opportunities for their PhDs, as well as supporting the government’s ambitions in implementing the ESRI 2030 PACT.”