It always starts the same way.
A meeting room, a clean (?) PowerPoint presentation, a few magic words: climate change, global energy transition adventure (?), green hydrogen, materials sustainability, energy systems efficiency (human?), Morocco’s strategic positioning, sector-based applications (skills?), and suddenly the university discovers a global vocation.
The next day, a new master’s program officially appears: Master in Hydrogen and Energy.
No one really knows yet what it means, but everyone applauds. Hydrogen trophy (?).
Chapter 1: Building a story out of nothing — I mean, the Hydrogen Master in Rabat, capital of Morocco
It usually begins in a bright, sunlit office.
Someone says: “Hydrogen is the future. We must create a master’s program.”
Let’s begin. Four meetings a day.
We compile:
- strategic objectives,
- curriculum design,
- potential career paths,
- hoped-for partners — international ones, because they sound more elegant.
And above all, this essential sentence:
“Aligned with the national energy transition.”
Which is often enough to turn an idea into an official program.
The master’s program is born before it even has a team, a laboratory, or sometimes even a clear idea of what will actually be taught.
But that doesn’t matter.
We have a title: Master in Hydrogen and Energy.
And in academic systems, a good title can temporarily replace an ecosystem.
Then comes the big question:
“Who will teach all this?”
- Optimistic answer: energy experts.
- Real answer: an elegant mix of physicists, general engineers, and lecturers discovering the field at the same time as the students.
Sometimes, a classic solution is added:
- an invited seminar,
- a foreign expert via video call,
- an “international” conference,
- open days that say very little; low attractiveness of the program (poor communication or unclear orientation), poorly structured curriculum (too theoretical or disconnected from industry needs).
The result gives the impression of an ecosystem… in beta version.
Talent is excluded; it disturbs with its creativity.
Chapter 2: The curriculum exists… but students are hesitant
The first months are strangely quiet.
We expect cohorts of students passionate about hydrogen, ready to revolutionize “global” energy (?) from a local lecture hall. But reality is more modest: low student enrollment, still-developing curricula, lack of specialized staff, and absence of clearly identified job opportunities on the labor market… many questions, and above all one big collective uncertainty:
“What… will we do after this master’s?”
The brochure vaguely answers: “a growing sector.”
Which, in academia, often means: “we’ll figure it out later.”
Chapter 3: When everything becomes “hydrogen” by academic magic
At this stage, the university often becomes imaginative.
A laboratory working on magnetic refrigeration suddenly becomes a potential hydrogen hub.
A materials project becomes “energy transition compatible.”
A local hydrogen conference quietly includes a slide on the “hydrogen market” or “hydrogen master’s program” for thematic coherence.
And sometimes, it even ends with a proud announcement:
“We are active in the field of hydrogen.”
The master’s program becomes a beautiful idea… suspended in the void.
Chapter 4: The paradox of invisible skills
Some then say: “The master’s program doesn’t work because the ecosystem is not ready.”
That sounds elegant, but it is incomplete. Because for the ecosystem to be ready… local skills are precisely what is needed.
And that is where the loop becomes interesting.
To produce hydrogen, we need renewable energy, water resources, storage infrastructure, transport systems, and transformation into high-value derivatives. So we need skills in all of that to attract students, along with a real understanding of the emerging industrial ecosystem.
Just working on magnetic refrigeration, fuel cell degradation, or teaching general energy courses, or collaborating with students, is not enough to organize a hydrogen conference or launch a hydrogen master’s program.
We cannot create an industrial sector by academic decree.
In other words, an industry does not emerge because a university program is created. A curriculum alone does not create an economic sector, and hydrogen first requires a real ecosystem (industry, investment, infrastructure, regulation).
Chapter 5: So what should be done?
It is not necessary to create a specialized hydrogen master’s program when the national industrial ecosystem is not yet ready or structured.
Graduates may enter a market that is still non-existent or too limited.
The attractiveness of the program may decline if students cannot see clear prospects.
And the program may remain isolated from industrial reality for years.
The scope of the “hydrogen” master’s should instead be broadened to fit a more general energy environment.
It should be integrated as an option within existing engineering programs.
In this logic, hydrogen remains present, but is no longer the backbone of the program. It becomes one component among others.
But even then, skills are needed to avoid wrong choices and losing years.
And to acquire skills, one must learn to accept reality, not copy-paste solutions just to exist.