Opening session
Plenary
Location: Auditorium - 25/03/2026, 09:30 - 25/03/2026, 10:30 (CET) (1 hour)

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Welcome speech

Prof. Houssine Azeddoug, President of Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco) 

Prof. Stefan Lang, CIVIS Secretary General, University of Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Salzburg (Austria)

Prof. Estelle Doudet, CIVIS Research Council Chair, University of Lausanne, Lausanne (Switzerland)


Prof. Mustapha Lkhider, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco) 

Local Organising Committee - Organisational information


Emeritus Professor Abdelmajid Bouziane, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco)

University 4.0: Bridging the global skills gap

Rapid technological changes driven by Industry 4.0 are fundamentally reshaping the global job market. Despite these shifts, many higher education institutions remain anchored in the "factory approach" of the University 1.0 and 2.0 eras, producing graduates whose profiles are increasingly misaligned with contemporary job requirements. This presentation identifies the critical skills gap that must be addressed to facilitate the transition to University 4.0, specifically focusing on competencies such as complex problem-solving, cognitive flexibility, and meta-learning. Particularly, a portion of the talk is devoted to the humanities—a sector with high enrollment that particularly suffers from entrenched teacher-centered narrative traditions, a digital pedagogy gap, infrastructure disparities, and curricular rigidity. The presentation concludes by suggesting strategic transformations, including the redefinition of the educator’s role, the adoption of open innovation models, and the implementation of "neoskilling" as a survival imperative in the digital age.

Africa Charter for Transformative 
Research Collaboration