The launch of the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes (UEMF) took place on Monday, 22 September 2014 in Fes, in the presence of the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training, Lahcen Daoudi, and several European ministers.
Placed under the High Honorary Presidency of HM King Mohammed VI, this public utility and non-profit institution is intended for students from both shores of the Mediterranean. It will welcome its first 200 students in September 2015 before eventually receiving 3,000 students. "Initially, this unique project will include six participating countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France)," stated the Minister of Higher Education, Lahcen Daoudi.
He added: "this is only a starting point. Tomorrow you will have European, Maghrebian, but also African students." Supported by "the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean" (UfM), "this project represents a university and economic challenge, but also a cultural and political one." The Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes is organised into two poles: the engineering and architecture pole and the human and social sciences pole. It will provide five-year training courses—including at least one and a half years outside Morocco—in the fields of renewable energies, aeronautics and automotive, regional planning, languages, fisheries resources, the history of Euro-Mediterranean civilisations, diplomacy, as well as in the field of integrated Euro-Mediterranean economics and econometrics.
According to its designers, this project will give birth to the "first establishment whose degrees will be recognised by the Moroccan State, the French State, and the European network of engineering schools." The teacher-researchers themselves will come from diverse backgrounds, notably from Morocco, France, or the consortium of partner universities, including Spanish (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville), Portuguese, and Italian (Milan, Turin) establishments. So many assets that make this unique project an important scientific platform in Morocco.
