The Mentorship of SMU Higher Institute, Buea, was supposed to begin on 26 October 2015 when the institute was issued authorization by the Ministry of Higher Education through letter No.1509643/L/MINESUP/SG/DDES/ESUP/SDA/MM of 26 October 2015 to offer foreign degrees in partnership with two foreign institutions. Nevertheless, recognizing the obvious difficulties of assuring normal standards of mentorship of SMU Higher Institute, Buea, by the two foreign institutions, the institute also sought mentorship from a Cameroonian state university to fulfil the requirements of Decree No. 2001/832/PM of 19 September 2001 on common rules applicable to private higher educational institutions (PHEI) and of the implementing Ministerial Order No.17/00260/MINESUP/SG/DAJ/DDES of 28 April 2017 on the organization of educational tutelage control by homologated state universities or establishments on PHEIs and of the Ministerial Circular No. 13/0003/MINESUP/CAB/DAUQ/DAJ of 22 October 2013 on the modalities of the exercise and conditions of academic tutelage control of PHEIs by state universities.
Thus, although mentorship by the two foreign institutions was previewed and gained, SMU Higher Institute, Buea, actively sought and obtained national mentorship from a Cameroonian state university, namely the University of Douala. After intense deliberations by a team of top management experts of SMU Higher Institute, Buea (Dr. Ndeh Ntomambang Ningo, Provost and Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Tah Magdaline, Associate Provost, Administration and Finance, Dr. Ndaleh Wozerou Nghonjuyi, Associate Provost, Academic Affairs, Mrs. Ngwa Magdalene, Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Ms Bih Delphine Beyam, Associate Vice President and Registrar), an informal exploratory contact, the first formal application for mentorship was submitted to the University of Douala (UD) on June 6, 2017.
