Digitalization of higher education in Morocco and the challenges of digital accessibility for students: case study of Ibn Zohr University of Agadir
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
To give university students more flexibility and accessibility, Morocco has invested in a project to digitize its higher education system by transforming access to administrative and educational services, offering interactive online platforms and electronic portals for program registration and visualization. In addition to improving access and the speed of services offered to students, the modernization of university infrastructure, with improved connectivity that permits widespread, free access to academic resources, tends to highlight structural disparities, particularly for students from underprivileged backgrounds, who face difficulties with accessibility and training. Our study aims to investigate the implementation of digital devices and examine the obstacles to students' digital access to these resources. A rigorous process was used to accomplish this goal, including conceptual analysis, empirical research, and a thorough evaluation of the body of knowledge on the digitalization of higher education. To validate and enhance the suggested conceptual model, both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from students and administrative officials of the Ibn Zohr University of Agadir (case study). The usefulness of this digital revolution in enabling users, especially students, to access the administrative and instructional resources of academic institutions is thus questioned in this study. This questioning is predicated on the idea that the digital divide between rural and urban areas undermines fair possibilities for digital accessibility; hence, measures regarding equitable access to digital tools are necessary.
Downloads
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
All authors submitting manuscripts to the African Cities Journal agree to the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. Under this license, authors retain the copyright to their manuscripts while granting the Journal the right to publish and distribute the work under the terms of the CC BY-SA license. Other persons, including the authors, are free to share the manuscript on the medium of their choice. In the event of sharing a modified version of the manuscript, it is imperative to clearly indicate the parts where modifications have been made.
Any derivative or adaptation of the work must be distributed under the same license conditions (CC BY-SA), to ensure that subsequent works retain the same level of openness and accessibility. This ensures that the work remains freely accessible and retains the same licensing conditions, thus promoting the principles of knowledge sharing and collaboration within the scientific community while safeguarding the rights and interests of the original authors.
Regarding the reproduction and downloading of manuscripts in personal or institutional repositories, authors are generally authorized to archive preprints (version of the manuscript prior to peer review) or postprints (version reviewed and accepted for publication) in these repositories. In particular, authors can reproduce their postprints in their thesis (as a chapter). However, it is essential to respect the terms of the CC BY-SA license and duly cite the original version published in our journal.
For manuscripts that have been accepted for peer review but have not yet been published in the African Cities Journal at the time of thesis submission, authors should mention that the chapter is the preprint version of a manuscript under review in the Journal. Consequently, authors retain copyright on their thesis chapters while granting the journal the right to publish and distribute the work under the CC BY-SA license.
How to Cite
Share
References
AYAD, K., & ELHACHLOUFI, M. (2023). Towards an ethical governance of higher education in Morocco. Revue Française d’Economie et de Gestion, 4(3), 368 – 385. https://www.revuefreg.fr/index.php/home/article/view/1051 visité le 13 février 2026.
BERCHEQ, A. (2022). La fracture numérique de second degré au Maroc. International Journal of Economics, Management and Finance (IJEMF), 88–94. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7514323
Blanchet, A., & Gotman, A. (2007). L'enquête et ses méthodes : l'entretien. Paris : Nathan. https://dokumen.pub/lenquete-et-ses-methodes-lentretien-2nbsped-9782200257736-2200257732.html
Bobineau, C. (2016). NVivo 11 : logiciel d’aide à l’analyse de données qualitatives. 1ère Action Nationale de Formation du réseau MATE-SHS : Collecter et produire des données pour la recherche en SHS (Ate-liers-découverte de logiciels session 1 : Logiciels d’analyse des données textuelles et qualitatives). Fréjus, France. Récupéré sur https://normandie-univ.hal.science/hal-02375025v1
Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2008). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
CIRCET. (2018, February 1). Accessibilité. Consulté le April 08, 2026, sur www.circet.ma : https://www.circet.ma/accessibility
Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. (2007). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. (SAGE, Éd.) Califor-nia: illustrée. https://books.google.co.ma/books?hl=fr&lr=&id=FnY0BV-q-hYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Designing+and+Conducting+Mixed+Methods+Research&ots=7bUC7wx4tF&sig=72HaY9cpBQgsb4BCGkY5Cvox870&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Designing%20and%20Conducting%20Mixed%20Methods%20Research&f=false
Denzin, N. K. (2012, April). Triangulation 2.0. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 6(2), 80–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689812437186
Dewar, J. (2017, August). University 4.0: Redefining the Role of Universities in the Modern Era. (H. E. Review, Interviewer, & H. E. Review, Editor) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Retrieved March 27, 2026, from https://www.thehighereducationreview.com/magazine/university-40-redefining-the-role-of-universities-in-the-modern-era-SUPG758722027.html
Diminescu, D. (2012). e-Diasporas Atlas - Exploration and Cartography of Diasporas on Digital Networks. Paris : Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme.
Efimov, V., & Lapteva, A. (2017, November 16-18). UNIVERSITY 4.0: PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS. In Proceed-ings of the 10th Annual International Conference of Education. Research and Innovation, 589-596. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2017.0242
ERRACHIDI, A. (2023/2024). CONTRIBUTION DU NOUVEAU MANAGEMENT PUBLIC À L’AMÉLIORATION DE LA PERFORMANCE ORGANISATIONNELLE DES ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE L’UNIVERSITÉ IBN ZOHR. Thèse En vue de l‘obtention du grade de: Docteur en Économie. Ait Melloul, Inzegane, Maroc : POLE DES ETUDES DOCTORALES, CENTRE DES ETUDES DOCTORALES EN SCIENCES JU-RIDIQUES, ECONOMIQUES & SOCIALES Agadir.
Foudou, I. (2025). Digital Accessibility and AI: Ethical and Societal Perspectives for Students with Sensory Dis-abilities. A Comparative Study of the Universities of Lille and Lome. Communication, technologies et développement, Online. https://doi.org/10.4000/15gpc
Granjon, F. (2022). Classes populaires et usages de l’informatique connectée. Des inégalités sociales-numériques. Presses des Mines, 360 pages. https://doi.org/10.4000/questionsdecommunication.32483
Jobin, A., Ienca , M., & Vayena , E. (2019). The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelli-gence, 1, 389-399. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2
Li, M. (2020, April 03). A Systematic Review of the Research on Chinese Character Teaching and Learning. Frontiers of Education in China, 15, 39-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-020-0003-y
Mouchon, S. (2020). Les bricolages de l'inclusion numérique : entre contournements et ajustements, Les ca-hiers du numérique, 26(2), 25-42. In (Inoussa Foudou (2025). Digital Accessibility and AI: Ethical and Societal Perspectives for Students with Sensory Disabilities. A Comparative Study of the Universities of Lille and Lome. Communication, technologies et développement, Online. https://doi.org/10.4000/15gpc
Nussbaum, M. C. (2011). Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, Massachu-setts: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2jbt31
Nussbaum, M. C. (2012). Women and Human Development The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511841286
OCDE. (2020). Perspectives de l'OCDE sur les compétences 2019 : Prospérer dans un monde numérique. Paris : OCDE. https://doi.org/10.1787/a0e29ca9-fr
Paillé, P., & Mucchielli, A. (2021). L'analyse qualitative en sciences humaines et sociales - 5e éd. Armand Colin.
Pellegrin, C., Alazali , M., & Meyer, J.-B. (2020). L'enseignement supérieur au Maroc : état des lieux et compa-raison public/privé. Centre Population et Développement, 25. https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3784938
Pluye, P. (2019). L’intégration en méthodes mixtes. Cadre conceptuel pour l’intégration des phases, résultats et données qualitatifs et quantitatifs. (É. s. Éditions, Éd.) In Évaluation des interventions de santé mon-diale. Méthodes avancées. Sous la direction de Valéry Ridde et Christian Dagenais, 187-212. Con-sulté le March 30, 2026, sur https://books.openedition.org/irdeditions/33608#anchor-toc-1-23
RGAA. (2021, February 01). Référentiel Général d’Amélioration de l’Accessibilité (RGAA) . (l. d. France, Éd.) Récupéré sur accessibilite.numerique.gouv.fr/: https://accessibilite.numerique.gouv.fr/doc/RGAA-v4.1.2.pdf
Sen, A. (1985). Commodities and Capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.474268/page/n1/mode/2up
Sen, A. (1995). Inequality Reexamined. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0198289286.001.0001
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. oxford: oxford university press.
UNESCO. (2022). Ethnicity and education: how indigenous knowledge and cultural identity are passed on through the Torém ritual of the Tremembé people. International review of education: journal of life-long learning, 68(6), 843-863. Récupéré sur https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384973
Warschauer, M. (2003). Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. The MIT Press, Online. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6699.001.0001
WCAG. (2018, June 05). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). updates were published on 21 Sep-tember 2023, 12 December 2024, and 6 May 2025. Consulté le April 08, 2026, sur W3C Web Acces-sibility Initiative (WAI): https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/
Zenati, J. (2023). L’éducation en Algérie à l’épreuve de la diversité, de la pandémie et de la transculturalié. Aleph, online. Retrieved march 27, 2026, from https://aleph.edinum.org/9905