Institutional Barriers to Implementing Triple Helix Initiatives in Higher Education: A Case Study of State and Private Universities in Cameroon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/Keywords:
Triple Helix Model, Higher Education, Cameroon, Bureaucratic Inertia, Entrepreneurial University, CAMES, Innovation HubsAbstract
Despite recent policy reforms including the Law on the Orientation of Higher Education in June 2023, the integration of the Triple Helix innovation model (university-industry-government) is dangerously delayed in Cameroon. This study looked at the deep institutional impediments to commercializing university research and to formalizing relationships with industry. The study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, and data from 342 students, 128 academic faculty, and 18 university administrators in selected state and private universities were collected. The results show a fractured “knowledge triad” that operates as a disjointed double helix. Napoleonic bureaucracy and centralized treasury routing administratively hobble state institutions, creating a 6-to-9-month “MoU Chokepoint” that alienates dynamic private-sector partners. On the infrastructure front, 78% of students have entrepreneurial intent, but innovation is stifled by underfunded “paper incubators” without physical prototyping labs and industry-experienced mentors, resulting in a “capital flight” of student talent to unregulated private tech clusters. The study highlights a cultural “IP Brain Drain” fueled by the regional CAMES regulatory system, which logically incentivizes professors to give up valuable local IP for promotion in foreign theoretical journals and actively discourages commercialization. The study concluded that for the Triple Helix to be a viable economic engine in Cameroon, the state should aggressively decentralize university governance, earmark venture funding to remove nominal incubators, and implement a dual-track tenure system rewarding local patenting on par with international publishing.
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