Wissensorganisation Universität und regionale Entwicklung im afrikanischen Kontext, am Beispiel der Universität Ngaoundere, Nordkamerun

In Africa as elsewhere, the model of the "entrepreneurial university" imposes a new "third" mission on universities, i.e. the responsibility of making a significant contribution to the economic development of their region and nation. This contribution discusses the situation of a small new university in a peripheral rural region of a peripheral country — Cameroon — and analyses the various dimensions of the university as a "knowledge organisation" in terms of their nature and geographical scope. A regionally uneven process of influence on social development thereby emerges which cannot easily be understood using the concepts of regional university research developed in Europe. The structural weaknesses of the university and the unique features of its socio-political environment mean that it is currently not well suited to fulfilling this new type of third mission.