Understanding LMD – History

Historically, it was in 1999 that European countries decided to harmonize their training courses and adopt a common diploma system, with the aim of allowing comparisons and equivalences at the international level, to promote student mobility. and their access to the world of work in Europe. It was the beginning of LMD. The founding texts of this reform appeared in 2002. The LMD or 3-5-8 system (License Bac+3, Master Bac+5, Doctorate Bac+8) is a model modeled on the Anglo-Saxon (English) model: Bachelor, Master, Doctorate. Since 2011, this system has been adopted by 32 European countries.

In French-speaking Africa, sixteen French-speaking African countries grouped within the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES) adopted a resolution in 2006, in Libreville, committing all their universities to adopt, on an educational level, the structuring of the course of studies according to the LMD model. It should be noted that this model is already in force in the majority of English-speaking African countries.

In the UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) area, seven countries have come together to create REESAO, the Network for Excellence in Higher Education in West Africa . This West African university cooperation institution now brings together 16 universities from the member countries of Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali and Senegal.

The REESAO’s mission is to define the ways and means for the implementation of the LMD in the different universities in its area. One of the aims of the Network is to promote a new university cooperation policy, placing priority on the modernization of the university training offer, with a view to facilitating the mobility and professional integration of students.

In TOGO, the implementation of the LMD system was established by Presidential Decree No. 2008-066/PR of July 21, 2008. The University of Lomé therefore switched to the LMD system from September 2009.