Rethinking Moroccan University Students Engagement

There is a strong belief that civic and political participation sustain democracy through civic and political involvement. (Sherrod, 2005; Sherrod and Baskir, 2007). This importance of civic engagement focuses on the need for innovative ways to prompt university students' in larger political involvement within their community. Another reason that accounts for this growing interest in active citizenship is due to the widespread concern about the decline in civic engagement and low participation by youth in the political process as well as reluctance of these young people evincing interest in their communities. (Thesis-More & Hibbing, 2005; Putnam, 2000; Fahmy, 2006). Based on the findings of a massive body of research, it is not surprising that the enhancement of active citizenship has become recurrent in the public and academic discourse. This goes to show that, in the last decade, citizenship education has been at the forefront of both educational research and curricula designs. The mission of universities should transcend technical formation to include what is referred to as the “third mission”. The latter underlines engagement in non-academic activities that target preparing students for responsible leadership and citizenship roles. (Molas-Gallart et al. 2002). The objective of this paper is to explore Moroccan university students' different forms of engagement. In order to achieve this objective, a study was conducted using a quantitative research method. The sample involved 242 Undergraduate English students and four faculties form Moroccan University.