Parliament postpones presentation of higher education reform bill amid faculty union pushback

Morocco’s House of Representatives has postponed a scheduled meeting to present Draft Law No. 59.24 on higher education and scientific research, sources told Hespress AR. The session, initially planned for next Tuesday, was delayed at the government’s request until further notice.

According to a parliamentary source, the Committee on Education, Culture and Communication had planned to receive the government’s presentation of the bill next week. “It was decided to postpone it at the government’s request so that the presentation could take place alongside discussions on the 2025–2026 academic year,” the source said.

In the meantime, the same committee is expected to hold a session with Education Minister Mohamed Saad Barada to review the current school year’s opening.

Within the higher education sector, tensions remain high. A source from the National Union for Higher Education (SNESup) told Hespress AR that the union’s national bureau plans to meet later this week, “no later than Friday,” to decide on further protest actions if the government fails to respond to its demands regarding the draft law.

The union has sharply criticized the government for forwarding the bill to Parliament “without a participatory approach or sharing the final version with the union, as previously agreed.” It argues that the proposed legislation “falls short of real reform,” threatens the “effective autonomy of universities, pedagogically, administratively, and financially,” and “undermines free public education” while “reducing faculty representation in university councils.”

Following a series of nationwide strikes held on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1–2 and 7–8, the union is now considering escalating its actions. “The national bureau must implement the mandate given by the administrative committee,  it cannot remain dormant,” one senior union source said.

Members of the union’s national bureau had already boycotted a meeting of the joint committee with the supervising ministry on Sept. 25, in protest of what they described as Minister Azzedine Midaoui’s breach of his commitment not to submit the bill to Parliament without prior consensus.

The disputed bill, now under review by the Education, Culture and Communication Committee, is seen by the union as emblematic of the government’s “unilateral” approach to higher education reform, reigniting long-standing tensions between the ministry and university faculty.