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 knowledgedependent
economy, and through the universities‟ core technologies of teaching and
research.
Based on empirical findings from an African case study, this paper 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‟.
