Ibn Tofaïl University is no longer limited to the classic role of training and learning. For some time now, opening up to its socio-economic environment has become its credo. The meeting organised recently by the ENSAK (National School of Applied Sciences), in the presence of Abdelaâdim Guerrouj, Minister Delegate to the Head of Government, in charge of Civil Service and Administration Modernisation, is the perfect illustration of this. Conscious of the capital role of business investment in the education sector, the ENSAK recently organised, in partnership with the Circle of Young Moroccan Democrats, a conference-debate on the theme: "What types of partnerships for the university of tomorrow?" The objective of the university being more than ever to emphasise the importance of Business-University partnerships for the modernisation of the university system and, more broadly, for economic growth.

During his introductory speech, the President of Ibn Tofaïl University, Abderrahmane Tenkoul, wished, first of all, to salute the efforts deployed by the Council of the Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen region to support cultural and training projects at the university level. "The success of the university in its new missions," he added, "cannot be realised without the contribution of its local, national, and international partners." "Our country," he indicates, "is heading towards the knowledge economy, which encourages us to move forward to support this strategy, win the battle of competitiveness, and take up the challenge of innovation and creativity. It is to accompany this process of multisectoral development and meet the needs of the company that Ibn Tofaïl University has diversified its training offer." An opinion shared by the Director of the ENSAK, Nabil Hmina, who estimated that the Moroccan university, for too long closed in on itself, is beginning to transform gradually by changing its image and gradually building its anchoring in its economic and social environment. "Education at the school level in general and the university in particular cannot be limited to building a form of citizenship, it must also prepare graduates for work and accompany their insertion into the socio-professional world.

It is an objective inscribed within the framework of the university's 2009-2012 four-year contract," he adds in substance. Addressing the students, Mekki Zizi, President of the Regional Council of the Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen, declared that this initiative clearly translated the desire of the young ENSA students to highlight their lever role in the scientific, entrepreneurial, and economic fields. "In a spirit of universality," he declares, "the university is increasingly solicited, not only as a factor of development, but also as a vector of local and regional development, this is how an opening between the university and its environment emerged.

Our Council understood, from its first mandate in 2003, the interest of establishing a strategy of cooperation and partnership with the higher education institutions of our region." A strategic partnership Abdelaâdim Guerrouj, Minister Delegate to the Head of Government, in charge of Civil Service and Administration Modernisation, recalled, in this regard, the famous PPPs (public-private partnerships) in strategic economic fields such as renewable energies, electricity, maritime fishing, agriculture, potable water." Inspired by a quip from Jules-Paul Tardivel: "the true patriot worries, not about the position he must occupy in the homeland, but about the rank that the homeland must reach among nations," the student Dounia Bouzoubaâ, the driving force behind this meeting, presented to the audience the National Initiative for the Development of Technological Training "IND’FoTech". An initiative that aims to strengthen the country's competitiveness in all its industrial activities (Offshoring, automotive, aeronautics, electronics, Textile, etc.) and to contribute to the promotion of a better integration of the Moroccan university into the various sustainable development projects.