A hundred private higher schools afraid of going bankrupt
“We are not outlaws”, protested one of the members of the Moroccan Association for Private Higher Education (Amesup), an association bringing together more than a hundred schools, and which today is stepping up to the plate. The reason for that? Lack of recognition by the Government. Currently, less than 20% of non-university paying schools (i.e. 24 out of a total of nearly 132 authorized in 2021-2022) benefit from such Government recognition.
The more than 80% who do not benefit from it claim to be suffering a real “massacre” today. Being so-called “unrecognized” (by the Government), these schools suffer from an image that makes look in the eyes of students and parents as “infringing” educational institutions. Year after year, these schools lament a loss of Moroccan students, replaced by registrations of international students, particularly sub-Saharan students. “However, all our courses are authorized and accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education”, claim the representatives of Amesup . If for international students having or not the Government label makes no difference, since the diplomas of Moroccan private schools are perfectly equivalent internationally, for national students, it is another story. Indeed, in Morocco, only recognized educational institutions can deliver equivalent diplomas, opening the way to the civil service and to the exercise of regulated professions. Until recently, everyone had come to terms with this situation, but a decision came to shake the whole sector.
■ An average loss of 20 students per day: The Gabonese Embassy in Morocco recently notified schools of the decision of the National Scholarship Agency of Gabon (ANBG) to redirect its scholarship students (even those in training) to recognized educational institutions (in Morocco). As a reminder, Gabon is one of the top 5 countries providing students to Morocco. The stakes are therefore high. “Our schools are losing an average of 20 students each a day. With small numbers in terms of students, many schools will not be able to open this fall. If we continue in this direction, schools will disappear, obviously resulting in the destruction of jobs”, confides the member of Amesup. “The ministry is not doing anything about this situation, and if we are not in good standing with the law, why does the Ministry then allow recognized schools and universities to enroll our students?”, argues the member of Amesup.
■ “We refuse to disappear for administrative reasons”: Recognition has, despite everything, made it possible to breathe new life into the sector. Many business or engineering schools, motivated by access to the label, have raised their standards, increased their recruitment, and cleaned up their situation. However, with the restrictive conditions required for access to the label, this latter remains inaccessible for the vast majority. “The ministry was supposed to support the schools towards recognition, but it never did! We refuse to disappear for administrative reasons. We prefer that employers sanction us on the basis of the quality of our graduates”, Amesup officials say .
Ahlam NAZIH
