On 10 May 2023 Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State
for the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, the UN, and the
Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual
Violence in Conflict, and Dr Abdellatif Miraoui, Morocco’s
Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and
Innovation, presided over the 5th meeting of the UK-Morocco
Higher Education Commission at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and
Development Office in London.
The meeting followed the previous day’s 4th UK-Morocco Strategic
Dialogue in Rabat, co-chaired by Lord Ahmad and Nasser Bourita,
Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and
Moroccan Expatriates. The Dialogue - covering culture, education,
political, economic and security issues - further demonstrated
the strength and depth of the bilateral relationship.
The meeting brought together representatives from the Moroccan
government, the British Council, the UK’s Department for Business
and Trade, the UK Quality Assurance Agency, Universities UK
International, Morocco’s National Agency for Evaluation and
Quality Assurance (ANEAQ), as well as several UK and Moroccan
universities. The meeting served to advance higher education
collaboration between Morocco and the UK, in particular English
learning and assessment, transnational education and scientific
research.
The meeting saw a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the
British Council in Morocco and Morocco’s Ministry of Higher
Education. The agreement aims to increase the uptake of English
language assessment in Moroccan public universities, paving the
way for future partnerships with other UK institutions in the
field of student assessments.
The meeting also discussed bilateral successes including the
institutional partnership between Keele University and the
Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education, collaboration on quality
of higher education offerings, and climate research partnerships
between University College London and University Ibn Tofail of
Kenitra.
Established in 2019, the Higher Education Commission meets
annually, as well as through quarterly sub-groups, to foster
stronger ties in higher education, scientific research, quality
assurance, and transnational education.
