University as regional development agent: a counterfactual analysis of an African university

Abstract

The contribution of universities to regional development has in the last few decades gained significant currency. Inter alia, this contribution has been through steered national, regional, and institutional policies aimed at enhancing national development, good governance, human capital creation and innovation in an increasing knowledge-dependent economy, and through the universities’ core technologies of teaching and research. Based on empirical findings from an African case study, this article argues that other forms of contributions to regional development exist, which are neither from deliberate efforts nor steered by direct policies. This article proposes new forms of contributions termed ‘unintended contributions’, in which universities become growth poles by virtue of being located in a particular region. Using the counterfactual and ‘export and import substitution’ methods of analysis, this study shows the various ways in which a rural university in Cameroon has ‘contributed to regional development as a ‘growth pole’.

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