UIZ is a public institution established in 1989. It is Morocco’s largest university by number of students that is 110000. The number of teaching staff is about 600 permanents. The administrative and technical staff is of about 400 people. UIZ covers 5 regions of Morocco with 52% of the national territory. UIZ currently has 18 Institutions located in 8 university cities.
They cover a multitude of disciplines notably sciences, economics and management, literature and humanities, business schools, engineering schools, technology, and recently medicine. UIZ is composed by different types of institutions including specialized faculties or multidisciplinary ones and schools of engineering and of business and institutes. They deliver all types of diplomas until PhD that over 150 doctoral degrees were awarded in UIZ between 2010 and 2015. The research activities in UIZ are conducted by 84 research organizations including groups and laboratories in different areas. In terms of entrepreneurship and innovation, UIZ has the Innovation Centre of Enterprise and Employability “CI2E”, home to the regional incubator Interuniversity South “IRIS”. 5 start-up operate there.
Several events are organized by UIZ to provide the opportunity for more ideas or business project holders. As examples : The “Doctoriales” are intended each year for PhD student with business projects; “Parés pour l’Avenir” is an annual event organized as competition concerning students with business ideas; and UIZ has 10 innovation patents. UIZ aims to promote and strengthen research as a means of creation and renewal of knowledge. UIZ meets the needs of the regions where it operates and contributes to their successful. It participated to several transnational projects as a consortium member. These have a positive impact on capacity building both on UIZ and on its socioeconomic environment. It has developed partnerships with national and international universities as well as with various other organizations.