Morocco’s public university enrolment shrank slightly this year — while every private and partnership track grew

For the first time in recent years, enrollment in Morocco’s public university system edged down — from 1,106,225 to 1,102,364 students, a drop of 0.35%. It’s a small decline, but a notable one given that every other segment of the higher education system grew over the same period.

The fastest growth came from universities and institutions created under partnership arrangements, up 21.1% year-on-year, followed by private university-affiliated institutions (+13.7%) and other private institutions (+12.1%). Cadre training programmes — Morocco’s selective grandes écoles track — grew more modestly at 2.3%.

Taken together, overall higher education enrollment in Morocco still grew 0.74% this year, to just over 1.25 million students. But the composition of that growth is shifting: an increasing share of new capacity is coming from private and partnership institutions rather than the traditional public university system.

Source: Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale, Direction des Stratégies et des Systèmes d’Information, L’Enseignement Supérieur en Chiffres 2024-2025