New Challenges in Higher Education: Choice or Force?

Abstract

At the end of the 1970‘s several weaknesses of the international economic competitiveness of the European continent became increasingly conspicuous. There is a mutual understanding in the literature that one of these was related to higher education. From the middle of the 1980’s the community of interests of the European governments, the higher educational institutions and the business sphere has gradually taken shape, along with the increase of the international competitiveness of the national higher education (start of Bologna-process). Reform ideas drawn up and actual measures taken in the past one and half decade had been motivated by common problems, namely:

• the environmental conditions have changed,
• a change has taken place in the state educational policy;
• competition has been getting stronger in higher education itself.

There is a general consensus that on the basis of the above mentioned socio-economic changes the higher education system and practice require an early transformation. The ‚entrepreneurial university‘ concept may offer a possible perspectival answer. The typical ‚entrepreneurial university‘ function is based on an autonomous institution business strategy, where the university operates as a business enterprise, not a social function.

The entrepreneurial university‘ draws up detailed action plans and clear objectives according to the subjective expectations of its members (lecturers, researchers, students and other staff) under uncertain future circumstances in order to answer the following questions: on which markets, what kind of supply it has to provide for its lasting survival in national and international competition. The ‚entrepreneurial university‘ concept actually means a fundamental change in attitudes and a greater personal responsibility.

In my opinion a new organizational-operational strategy constitutes the basis of the appearance of flexible adaptation of the university as well as the entrepreneurial attitude at an institutional level where the tasks being linked to the human resource management are the focal point.