Coventry University has announced plans to open a new campus in Morocco in partnership with a local institution.

Superior Institution of Science and Technology (SIST), a Moroccan higher education institution that operates entirely in English, will invest £14 million to develop a purpose-built campus in Casablanca to deliver Coventry degree programmes.

The two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the partnership last week at the inaugural meeting of the UK-Morocco Higher Education Commission, which was organised by the British Council and the British Embassy in Morocco and hosted at Coventry’s London campus.

The Moroccan campus will provide programmes in teacher training, business, and science and technology. The institutions will also explore opportunities for joint research and teaching as well as mobility for staff and students between the new site and Coventry’s UK campuses.

Coventry is the first UK university to announce plans to open a campus in Morocco. The institution currently has sites in Coventry, London and Scarborough, and in 2018 it said it would open a branch campus in Poland. The Wrocław outpost is set to open in the autumn.

John Latham, vice-chancellor of Coventry University, said the partnership with SIST would “give us our first strong relationship with a Moroccan institution”.

“We’re also looking at partnerships in nurse training and nurse education and exploring links around research, especially water security and food security. We see Morocco as a gateway to Africa and a country where higher education in the UK overall could have more and further collaborations,” he said.

Tariq Obaid, president of SIST, added that the partnership “has potential to deliver great benefits to our two institutions while contributing immensely to Morocco’s human resources development”.

“Moreover, staff and students in both Morocco and Coventry could benefit from the cross-cultural networks that will be developed and the joint activities that will grow once the partnership is established,” he said.

The UK-Morocco Higher Education Commission aims to strengthen strategic partnerships between the Moroccan and British education sectors, particularly in the areas of student mobility and internationalisation, research and innovation, quality assurance and governance, reform in teaching methods and the use of science and technology.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com