The Observatory for Foreign and National Press, OPEN, granted a press conference in Yaounde recently to announce preparations for this year’s Students’ Challenge competition.

The competition will take place on 13th November 2015 in the University of Dschang in the West Region. The objective is to innovate, valorize and promote ingenious students from State universities and private professional institutions.

The innovations for this year include the double themes in the fields of Social and Human Sciences and Applied Science and Technologies. The other is the participation of students from private institutions for the first time. There will also be a cultural village and use of Cameroonian themes during the competition.

Speaking at the occasion, the Coordinator of Cameroon Students’ Challenge Dschang 2015, Thierry Nguionza, said only Cameroonian themes will be used in the fields of Social and Human Sciences in future. The theme for this year in the field of Social and Human Sciences is “Culture and heritage: Role and contribution to peace, progress and influence of the African continent.’’ The second theme for Applied Science and Technologies is “3G/4G… new challenges of economic growth of an innovative application on mobile device.”

The Deputy Secretary of OPEN, Jessie Atogho Ekukole, explained that the innovation is based on three areas - academics, civic education and culture, with the aim to detect, give value and promote bright and talented creative students. Intending participants are expected to form groups of five that must be gender-sensitive, bilingual and multi-disciplinary, in order to to apply for short listing before the finals next November.