The next production revolution (NPR) is occurring because of a confluence of digital technologies (e.g. 3D printing, the Internet of Things, advanced robotics), new materials (e.g. bio- or nano-based), and new processes (e.g. data-driven production, artificial intelligence). Africa is expected to be “the world’s next great manufacturing centre”, potentially capturing part of the 100 million labor-intensive manufacturing jobs that will leave China by 2030, provided it embarks decisively on a path of industrialization and circumvent the challenges the “New Industrial Revolution” is generating. Tunisia is one of the African countries that has understood early enough that the digital transformation and the next industrial revolution offers exciting opportunities for the country to make its great leap into the future. Tunisia shows an articulate innovation ecosystem that is promising for introducing the NPR in the country. However, benefiting from the NPR requires overcoming a myriad of obstacles. Major reforms and efforts are needed at the level of infrastructure, education, training and scientific research to provide Tunisian industrialists with the human skills capable of appropriating the technologies accompanying this Revolution. In addition, the low connections between universities and industries come out to weak innovation linkages that may stop further innovation in the country, especially in the field of NPR where the relevance of applied research and technology transfer is high. To this end, NePRev aims to develop a closer connection between universities and industries and reinforce the role of Tunisian universities to promote the transition toward the NPR and adapting to the evolving needs of the labour market in Tunisia. A key major outcome of NePRev is to set up a joint research master degree in Next Production Revolution, focusing on the training and education of researchers and experts prepared to help the Tunisian industry to embrace this revolution.

The labour market in the Maghreb is characterised by high youth unemployment and a low level of integration of women. The integration of young people is hampered by an economic development model that does not create enough jobs, combined with training that is not adapted to market needs and the lack of attractive jobs in the formal sector. To address these issues, higher education institutions in the region must improve future self-employment prospects for graduates, especially women. WEMag aims to help reduce the obstacles to entrepreneurship for young educated women in Tunisia and Morocco by providing them with entrepreneurial knowledge, experience and access to networks for business purposes. Using a design-thinking approach, it will create a new, common University Course on entrepreneurship designed for women, including project-oriented action learning, online learning and an internship allowing them to discover the first steps of budding companies. This course will improve the knowledge, skills and competences of female students and recent graduates in Tunisia and Morocco for employability and business creation after formal education. It will foster the entrepreneurial spirit of female students and help them build professional networks for business creation with key actors in their local startup ecosystems. Following the one-year course, students wishing to pursue will benefit from a personal coaching to launch their own companies. The project will also improve entrepreneurial pedagogy through a Teacher’s Training. This Teacher’s Training Component will be co-created with partner universities in the Maghreb and inspired by the service design methodology, in order to best respond to their context and needs. Given the appropriate tools and support, more female graduates will launch their own companies in Tunisia and Morocco, with a beneficial impact both on their employment prospects and the economy at large.

The project is designed to create in Maghreb a PhD school in regular PhD programs in water & environment, improve existing prerequisite courses and develop new modern courses to train staff and PhD students, through a regional Hydroplatform establishment based on open GIS and modeling softwares, to follow-up the recent water strategies in Maghreb (2010-2030).This goal is consistent with the HE system reform adopted in Maghreb universities (MA, DZ, TN). Through this JP Maghreb and EU Universities will integrate academic community and will lead to more effective transfer of knowledge, teaching/research skills-methods from EU partners to PC. The objectives of the project are planned to be achieved by development of new courses on open source modeling using Maghreb partners experience and needs and EU partners advanced technologies. The Maghreb hydroplatform will be created in Maghreb and accessible online for Maghreb & EU partners for PhD course trainings, perform studies, water project design and share data via SDI. Relevant capacity building activities are foreseen to support newly created hydroplatform and to train Maghreb teachers: staff mobilities, new courses, teaching laboratories & library resources upgrading. Target groups of students and staff will follow the programs through mobilities; and first group of this study program will graduate from partner universities, during project implementation and after the project end to ensure sustainability. Two open dissemination seminars at the end of each year of the project implementation, creation of Internet Home Page and publication & distribution of dissemination leaflets are also envisaged. The sustainability of the project results will be ensured by incorporating the new courses into partner universities and new trainings for available water centres in the 3 MAG countries. Government support will cover costs of teaching/maintenance and further resources are ensured from offered trainings to water companies.

Internationalization in the MENA region is a quite complex undertaking and international mobility has become a key tool to improve the quality of Higher Education, thus addressing the regional need for a strong skills base to uphold economic and social development. Within this framework, Erasmus+ and its International Credit Mobility (ICM) Scheme have represented a challenge for MENA governments and HEIs, who have felt the need to share information and best practices to develop an innovative, effective and efficient management of ICM.ICMED, though the activities carried out in its 30 months of implementation and thanks to the effective involvement of its Partners, has contributed to building Partner countries’ HEIs capacity in the field of international relations, with a specific focus on E+ ICM, thus reinforcing EU partners cooperation in the region and improving the quality of mobility flows under KA107. More specifically, the project aimed at strengthening partner HEIs staff capacity to deal with ICM & International Mobility in general, through the implementation of a comprehensive Training Programme held in the region. First, a Consultation Process was carried out with the objective to map the status of ICM implementation at institutional and regional level. This included a desk research, interviews with academic and administrative staff, as well as National Erasmus+ Offices in Partner countries; and the development of a comprehensive Training Plan. Based on the results of the Consultation process, 3 training weeks were carried out on different themes, including “Effective cooperation between EU & Partner countries towards a successful application and Instruments and services for ICM”; “Recognition mechanisms and instruments within ICM; “Beyond ICM: developing of JD/DD programmes”. A comprehensive International Mobility Toolkit was then developed to support Partners in the institutional implementation of ICM. The Toolkit includes a set of templates to be used as daily guidelines and roadmap to implement and manage ICM and potentially any other international mobility scheme. The toolkit has served as a reference to HEIs staff in the region, as demonstrated during the final conference and Train-the-Trainers event. These outputs were widely disseminated and multiplied during the Train-the-Trainers event and the Final Conference.Four Policy Briefs addressing local authorities in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, as well as the EC, were also prepared with the aim to contribute to the discussion on the future generation of ICM programmes (E+ 2021-27/ national programmes) and shared with key stakeholders during the Final Conference and separate meetings. At local level, MENA HEIs have widely benefited from the project results as demonstrated by Partners feedback and new actions undertaken (see other sections of the Report for further information), exploiting achieved skills and establishing new privileged cooperation forms with EU and other African HEIs; at national & EU level, local NEOs were stimulated to reflect on ICM management and implementation as well as on its potential revision and restructuring in the MENA region, with a special attention to digital innovation, blended mobility and virtual exchange.

Le projet TUNED a fourni une opportunité aux institutions partenaires de se fédérer autour d'une action structurante pour répondre aux priorités définies par le plan stratégique de la réforme de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche scientifique 2015-2019 en Tunisie: « Améliorer la qualité de la formation universitaire et l’employabilité des diplômés ». Le transfert de compétences et capacités réalisé en faveur des universités bénéficiaires a été articulé autour de 4 piliers fondamentaux: -Création de la plateforme web de rencontre entre offre et demande sur le marché de l’emploi des diplômés, www.tuned.rnu.tn, où les étudiants en fin d'études peuvent évaluer leur expérience universitaire en répondant à un questionnaire en ligne, créer et mettre à jour continuellement leur CV sous format Europass en arabe, français et anglais dont la partie administrative est certifiée par les universités d'appartenance, consulter l'offre de formation universitaire, visualiser et comparer les données relatives aux enquêtes sur le profil et l'insertion professionnelle des diplômés; la plateforme a mis en relation 26.876 diplômés enregistrés avec 118 entreprises, ce qui a donné lieu à 94.696 CV téléchargés, 18 offres d’emploi publiées, 142 candidatures envoyées.- Réalisation de 3 enquêtes statistiques sur le profil des diplômés en 2017, 2018 et 2019, pour évaluer l'efficacité interne des universités, en impliquant au total 9.146 étudiants en fin d'études. - Réalisation d'une enquête statistique sur l'insertion professionnelle des diplômés de licence et d'écoles d'ingénieurs 2016 à 3 ans depuis l'obtention du diplôme, qui a approfondi la transition de l’université vers le marché de l’emploi et les perspectives d’insertion professionnelle des diplômés, et a évalué l'efficacité externe des universités, en interviewant un échantillon représentatif de 5.079 diplômés.- Formation de 15 agents de liaison avec le tissu socioéconomique en vue du développement de la carrière des diplômés et de l’amélioration de leurs habilités transversales, ainsi que du renforcement de la collaboration universités-entreprises; rédaction d'un manuel du formateur et réalisation de 16 formations locales en faveur des Centres 4C des universités. Un 5ème pilier transversal et indispensable pour garantir l’efficacité des 4 piliers ci-dessous a concerné la dissémination des bénéfices attendus auprès d’étudiants, diplômés, personnel administratif et entreprises, par le biais de news publiées sur le site web du projet, www.tuned-project.eu, de 5 conférences nationales et de 55 séminaires locaux, ainsi que de la réalisation d'une vidéo promotionnelle, https://youtu.be/erBXuy00S20.Le projet a voulu impulser un changement de mentalité tourné vers l’évaluation systématique de l’efficacité interne et externe des universités, pour un suivi régulier des performances de diplômés et institutions, afin d’institutionnaliser l’assurance qualité, garantir une amélioration constante de l’offre de formation basée sur des observations ponctuelles et des analyses rigoureuses, et favoriser l'employabilité des diplômés par un rapprochement vers les entreprises aussi en termes d'outils innovants de recrutement. TUNED concerne désormais l'ensemble des universités du pays, le Ministère de tutelle ainsi que les 24 ISET, et CONECT, qui ont décidé d'investir dans la pérennité des acquis du projet et de créer le ROUT, Réseaux des Observatoires Universitaires Tunisiens, pour institutionnaliser leur engagement commun et donner vie à une structure permanente de soutien à la réforme de l'enseignement supérieur en Tunisie.