The prestigious Canadian university, Concordia, established in Montreal for nearly half a century, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Canada organized April 21 in hybrid mode, as part of this year’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, a meeting on the theme of “academic and scientific dialogues Concordia-Morocco”. Graham Carr, President and Vice Chancellor of Concordia University, pleaded for more academic exchanges and partnerships between Morocco and Canada.
“We want to build bridges, be drivers of change and forge fruitful collaborations with Morocco,” said Graham Carr. He also welcomed the strong academic relationships and partnerships that already exist between Concordia University and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), in the field of energy, sustainability, information technology and communication and human health. A student and professor mobility agreement has also been concluded between the two higher education institutions, according to a press release from the Moroccan Embassy in Canada.
After having followed the various interventions made within the framework of the meeting, not only by the Moroccan Minister for Energy Transition, Leila Benali, but also by eminent Moroccan university professors and researchers representing the Euromed University of Fez, the UM6P, the Center for Research on Solar Energy and New Energies (IRESEN), the Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST) and the Mascir Foundation for Research and Innovation, President Carr said he was “strongly impressed by the progress and performance made by Morocco, particularly in the field of green energy and sustainability”.
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In the process, the official expressed the belief that Concordia University, which is a new generation institution of higher education prioritizing areas that serve to move society towards the betterment, is certainly in able to further promote its exchanges with the Moroccan academic and scientific community, to strengthen the existing links between them and to forge new ones, all in a spirit of mutual benefit. He expressed his desire to go on a working visit to Morocco in the near future and also his wish to be able to welcome more Moroccan students to his University, which currently only has 150 out of a total of 50,000 students from 150 different countries around the world.
Concordia also has a hundred Moroccan winners holding one of its diplomas. Thus, Graham Carr subsequently took part personally, alongside in particular Rachel Bendayan, Member of the Canadian Parliament and Co-President of the Canada-Morocco Parliamentary Friendship Group, Monsef Derraji, Member of the National Assembly of Quebec, and several Canadian and Moroccan professors, researchers and students at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between Concordia and the Moroccan Cultural Center, a tool aimed at strengthening cooperation and rapprochement between the cultures of the two countries. The memorandum was signed by Paula Wood Adams, Vice-President of Research and Graduate Studies at Concordia University and by Houda Zemmouri, Director of the Moroccan Cultural Center, in the presence of the Moroccan Ambassador to Canada, Souriya Otmani and of the Consul General of Morocco in Montreal, Mhamed Ifriquine.
