Moroccan Higher Education Union Warns of Article Nine Amendments and Reaffirms Rejection of October 20 Agreement

The National Office of the Moroccan Union of Higher Education and Scientific Research issued a statement to the academic community on November 17, 2024, following the issuance of ministerial memo No. 10780-2 dated November 13, 2024, regarding academic promotion of research professors.

The statement highlighted several key points:

1. The launch of the promotion process was considered a positive but incomplete step toward releasing promotions that have been frozen for two years.
2. The Union firmly rejected any approach to handling research professors’ promotions outside the agreed-upon framework between the union and the ministry.
3. Emphasized that the union bears no responsibility for Article Nine and its contents, stressing its serious negative implications for the system and research professors’ career paths.
4. The Union described Article Nine as an assault on the eight-year tenure requirement, criticizing the introduction of terms it described as dangerous and foreign to higher education promotion terminology.

The statement recalled that the October 20, 2022 agreement, which the union refused to sign, covered three main axes:

• The pedagogical reform, which the statement described as a failure
• The basic statute for research professors, which produced provisions that undermined existing benefits
• The higher education regulatory law, which the statement considered a threat to democracy and the representation of research professors

The statement concluded with the union’s affirmation to confront all schemes targeting research professors in their professional careers and public universities in their autonomy.

The union stated it understands the voices currently complaining about Article Nine, which it considers an attempt to undermine research professors’ memory and legitimate aspirations, asserting that it will continue to defend fair demands outside narrow formal negotiations, warning of serious negative implications for the profession’s future and higher education in Morocco.