The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), in partnership with Mohammed V University in Rabat, held the inaugural symposium of ICESCO Open Education Chair: “For Equitable Access to Comprehensive and Quality Education,” which is hosted by the University, in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, and the Moroccan National Commission for Education, Science and Culture, and representatives of several universities and international and regional organizations.

During the symposium, which was held on Thursday (June 15, 2023) both face-to-face and via videoconference, at the headquarters of the Faculty of Sciences at Mohammed V University in Rabat, the speakers emphasized the role of academic chairs in the fields of education, and their importance in strengthening the roles of universities in deepening applied educational research.

They pointed out that academic chairs encourage excellence and innovation by integrating modern technology and open educational resources, harnessing artificial intelligence and its applications, and diversifying sources of knowledge, including big data, especially open ones, to enable universities, research centers and scientific studies to enhance efforts geared towards developing education in the Islamic world and beyond in line with the relevant international standards and scientific developments.

The symposium comes within the framework of ICESCO’s strategic vision in the field of education, which aims to develop scientific research in its Member States on open education, make use of educational resources and practices and open science, and promote copyright, open data and personal data protection, in addition to adopting open education initiatives and practices in Muslim countries.