University of New England Celebrates 10th anniversary of Tangier Campus

The University of New England celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Tangier, Morocco Campus in a special ceremony featuring remarks by UNE President James D. Herbert on Tuesday, Oct. 22. 

The event marked a decade of global education at UNE’s one-of-a-kind facility in Tangier and highlighted the University’s ongoing commitment to fostering international understanding through education, community engagement, and cultural exchange.

Since its opening in the spring of 2014, UNE’s Tangier Campus has welcomed 745 students, including 591 undergraduates participating in semester-long study abroad programs. The campus has also hosted 68 graduate students from UNE’s Doctor of Physical Therapy and Master of Science in Occupational Therapy degree programs through short-term global study opportunities.

In his remarks, President Herbert said UNE chose Tangier as its primary study abroad location for its cosmopolitan nature, featuring cultural influences from around the world, while envisioning a campus that would meet the needs of students in all degree programs.

“This program offers a truly life-changing experience for our students,” Herbert said. “When we opened the doors here for the first time, we opened the world — and worlds of new opportunities — to students from Maine … (and) they come back more mature, more confident, and more connected to the world than when they left.”

The celebration coincided with the signing of a new, cooperative agreement between UNE and The University of Abdelmalek Essaadi in Tétouan, Morocco. This partnership will create new opportunities for social and cultural collaborations between students, faculty, and professional staff of both universities. 

Clockwise, from top left: UNE students dress in traditional Moroccan attire for a ceremony commemorating the Tangier Campus’s 10th anniversary; UNE students sing the Cherifian Anthem, the national anthem of Morocco, at the ceremony; students gather at dinner; UNE President James Herbert addresses ceremony attendees; Herbert and President Bouchta El Moumni of Abdelmalek Essaadi University in Morocco sign a cooperative agreement between the universities.

UNE’s Tangier Campus has long been a hub for cross-cultural learning, offering programs that deepen students’ understanding of Moroccan culture and language while broadening their global perspectives.

The campus provides a wide range of English-language courses, with a curriculum tailored to students from all majors, including the health sciences. 

While there, students benefit from state-of-the-art biology, chemistry, and physics labs and take additional coursework across multiple disciplines, including Moroccan society and culture, travel writing, and the Arabic language. These courses offer students a unique opportunity to integrate global experiences with their academic goals without delaying progress in their programs of study.

Beyond academics, UNE students in Tangier actively engage with the local community. Through clinical experiences, volunteer work, home stays, and internship opportunities, students gain real-world experience by shadowing while broadening their worldview. Their weekends are often spent traveling to other Moroccan cities such as Tétouan, Chefchaouen, Asilah, and Marrakech, further enriching their cultural immersion and enhancing their global citizenship.

“We are beyond grateful for the incredible 10 years our students have had in Tangier,” Herbert said. “And we look forward to many, many more years of intercultural exchange, productive collaboration, and friendship.”