Publication Details
Abstract
In response to structural youth unemployment, Cameroon's 2023 Higher Education Law mandated a systemic shift toward the "Entrepreneurial University" paradigm via the "Student-Entrepreneur" (SNEE) initiative. This study empirically assessed the institutional, pedagogical, and infrastructural readiness of the University of Bamenda and the University of Buea to operationalize this coercive top-down mandate. Utilizing a mixed-methods exploratory sequential design, data were collected through administrative and faculty interviews (N = 24), student focus groups (N = 6), and dual quantitative surveys administered to academic staff (N = 412) and final-year students (N = 850). Grounded in neo-institutional theory and the Triple Helix model, the findings expose profound institutional decoupling and a severe supply-demand mismatch. While student entrepreneurial intent is overwhelmingly high (M = 4.12), it is actively stifled by bureaucratic strangulation (beta = -.52). Conversely, faculty pedagogical readiness is critically low (M = 2.14), driven by acute infrastructural deficits (beta = -.45) and deep-seated Humboldtian resistance to unfunded "academic capitalism." Although the University of Buea demonstrated a statistically significant readiness advantage (p < .001) due to its localized tech ecosystem, both institutions exhibit "isomorphic mimicry,” establishing symbolic incubators lacking actual absorptive capacity. The study concludes that legislative mandates cannot generate entrepreneurial culture in a vacuum; policymakers must transition from coercion to active financial enablement, radically restructure academic promotional criteria, and engineer the missing industry helix to rescue the policy from institutional evaporation.