Modul de formare-Managementul resurselor financiare - uefiscdi

Chapter 7. The financing and entrepreneurial activity of higher
education institutions in the context of the knowledge based society
Professor Dr. Elena Dobre
University Ovidius Constanţa
7.1. European premises regarding knowledge based society
The European leaders have met in Lisbon in 2000, announcing their intention to make Europe
the "most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world" by 2010 35 . Lisbon
Strategy highlights the current priorities at EU level: Investment in research; Science and
innovation; The development of a competitive business environment; Labor market adaptation
according to the demographic challenges and energy policy and climate changes.
The Romania's National Strategy for CDI is set in the National Research, Development and
Innovation Plan for 2007-2013 (PN II), approved by HG 475/2007. In PN II vision, the role of
the national system of CDI is to develop science and technology to increase economic
competitiveness, improve social quality and knowledge accumulation of recovery potential.
7.2 The university seen as an entrepreneurial organization that provides education,
research and facilities for students
Integration of research along with education in the hard core of academic mission was called
"the first university revolution" 36 . The new universities were already moving towards the second
revolution that tends to transform universities into genuine business providers of education that
can perform research and develop economic activities such as facilities offers for
students. These new changes are characterized by expressions such as "the entrepreneurial
university," “academic capitalism "," intellectual entrepreneurship ".
Clearly, the university as a public utility institution with the mission to provide education can be
seen in terms of organization and management as an enterprise with a specific business object.
The university is led by the teaching staff, by self-management and not by professional
management. From this perspective the university is not an entrepreneurial or management
organization. The entrepreneurial character is given by the management style used and also by
entrepreneurial activities undertaken to fulfil the mission of education.
7.3 Entrepreneurship aspects in the study cases reported in EUEREK project
The attitude and activities of entrepreneurs arise from innovation and risk taking if we expect
further benefits. The funding is the key indicator in the management of any business activities
because any innovation requires risks taking and has an economic dimension.
Universities are institutions that advance their reputation and their wealth (patrimonial and
human) by creating and disseminating knowledge. If the innovations that universities bring and
the assumed risks lead to a faster creation of knowledge and to their transfer in economic and
social practice, then their entrepreneurship contributes towards the knowledge based society.
35 Alvin Toffler,Heidi Toffler Revolutionary Wealth, 2006
36 Etzkowitz, 2003, citat de Mircea Miclea în Higher Education in Europe, UNESCO CEPES Vol. 31, no. 2 July
2006 p. 104
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