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The output of researchers in Morocco compared to some North African countries from 1996 to 2012, and its relationship to governmental major decisions on higher education and scientific research

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Abstract

In the 1980s, Morocco was vowed to be a leader country of scientific research and output in North Africa. However, the scientific output underwent stagnation and even decline in the mid-2000s relegating Morocco to the last rank of the Maghreb countries. Analysis of the effects of several major governmental decisions taken in the 2000s, shows a clear impact on research activity. The major decisions that have had the most important negative impact are: (1) the use of different scientific languages in schools and universities, (2) abolition of the State Doctorate, (3) the promotion system of professors, (4) the complex bureaucracy of project management, (5) the Voluntary Departure initiative, (6) administrative equivalence of Master and PhD, (7) teaching pressure in universities, (8) ageing of professors and supporting administrative personnel, (9) preference given to expertise over research activity, (10) fled of PhD students.

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Notes

  1. Former French system, replaced by Doctorate and Habilitation.

  2. http://www.scimagojr.com/.

  3. http://www.scopus.com.

  4. http://www.imist.ma.

  5. www.estime.ird.fr/IMG/ppt/Evaluation_of_Research_Systems.ppt.

  6. http://www.hcp.gov.ma.

  7. http://www.ons.dz/-Demographie-.html.

  8. http://www.capmas.gov.eg/pdf/Electronic%20Static%20Book2013/english/population/untitled1/pop.aspx.

  9. http://www.ins.nat.tn/indexfr.php.

  10. Clearly, the role of the supervisor in manuscript preparation is a major one. Otherwise, most students are not capable of a correct preparation of their manuscripts, except in technical issues (equations, figures). Available online translation is often used for English writing.

  11. For instance, the Institut Scientifique lost 3 seismologists, one geophysicist and 2 botanists, four of which had an h-index of 5–9, together with experienced technical seismological analysts.

  12. http://www.ur105.ird.fr/IMG/ppt/QuestsurveyinMoroccoFinal.ppt.

  13. For instance, 5 students (out of 6) with research tasks abandoned the unit of applied geology of the Institut Scientifique in 2012. Only one was recruited afterwards.

  14. For example, the three last winners of open recruitment competition in the Institut Scientifique were PhD holders from Spain, Belgium and France.

Abbreviations

CAPMAS:

Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Egypt

CNRST:

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (National Centre of Scientific and Technical Research), Rabat, Morocco

DESA:

Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Approfondies (a former Master equivalent)

DESFCRS:

Département de l’Enseignement Supérieur, de la Formation des Cadres et de la Recherche Scientifique

IMIST:

Institut Marocain de l’Information Scientifique et Technique

MMSP:

Ministère de Modernisation du Secteur Public, Morocco

PARS:

Programme d’Appui à la Recherche Scientifique (Programme for the Support of Scientific Research)

PROTARS:

PROgramme Thématique d’Appui de la Recherche Scientifique (Thematic Programme for the Support of Scientific Research)

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Correspondence to Fida Medina.

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Addendum

During submission of the present manuscript, SCImago published data of years 2013 and 2014, and modified several data of previous years. A rapid analysis shows that the trends presented in this paper for the 2000s are not affected by these modifications, although years 2013 and 2014 show that the new governmental scientific policy favored innovative specialties such as Computer sciences and Engineering which grew considerably.

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Medina, F. The output of researchers in Morocco compared to some North African countries from 1996 to 2012, and its relationship to governmental major decisions on higher education and scientific research. Scientometrics 105, 367–384 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1701-8

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