DEVELOPING AND STRENGTHENING THE MODEL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY IN ROMANIA

Punescu Carmen Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti Piata Romana 6, Bucuresti, Sector 1, Romania, +40-213191991, carmen.paunescu@com.ase.ro Abstract The article addresses the possibility of developing and extending the entrepreneurial university model in the Romanian higher education institutions, regardless of their profile. The model of entrepreneurial university stands out through a clear orientation towards the demands of its customers, including those of the business environment, materialized by the extension and reinforcement of the partnership with all universitys stakeholders, interested in the quality of education and research provided by university. This type of university is, above all, concerned with the quality of its products, particularly the social and professional competences offered, but also with the results and accomplishments obtained both scientifically and technologically, and on the labor market. The carried out researches substantiate that this entrepreneurial university model can also be successfully developed and consolidated in the Romanian universities through the involvement and total commitment of the entire academic community, assisted by the business environment and society as a whole. Keywords: entrepreneurial university; entrepreneurial culture; innovative teaching and learning methods; quality assurance; universities business environment partnership.

1. Introduction
At the universities in the U.S., Great Britain and Germany the improvement activities of the quality of the universitys processes are an equally sustained effort by the professoriate and the university staff, students and business people in general. In this respect, the university actively supports the participation of students, faculty and staff members on one side, but of also alumni and business people on the other side in the unrolling of the educational process (Cole 2001; Blackmur 2004; Botham & Mason 2007). The quality of the educational services offered by these universities is firstly associated to the quality of the human resources allocated, whether its the professoriate, students, researchers or administrative personnel (Dew & McGowan 2004). Therefore, evaluating competences and performances of all the parties involved in the universitys educational process (by specialized organizations, broad public, mass-media) is vital to the maintenance or consolidation of the universitys prestige. The same importance is required by the evaluation of the study programs, particularly, curricula and syllabi content, the evaluation of material and financial resources, and also the evaluation of other processes at institutional level. (Grant et al. 2002). Being aware of the fact that the profile and requirements of the candidates at the admission exams or of the students enrolled in the bachelor or Ph.D. programs have significantly changed in the last few years and that this transformation will continue to be produced, universities are interested to make the voice of the students heard and listened to. Todays students have access to a large amount of information regarding the enrollment opportunities in a university or post-university study program and also information regarding the employment opportunities during studies and after graduation. In order to increase the students interest in the learning process, but also to make them aware of their role in society, universities try to make the students, and the other parties that are concerned with the quality of the educational process, more responsible through their active involvement in the internal processes of the university. Some extenuating circumstances (that have been foreseen) have determined the universities to rethink in the smallest details the relation between the teaching staff, students and business people (Limpert 1997; Frank 2005; Evans 2006). In the U.S., Great Britain or Germany this orientation has lead to the extension and consolidation of the partnerships between universities and enterprises or the business environment in general, which had as a primary result the development of the entrepreneurial university model (Botham & Mason 2007). The current reform launched in the business higher education in Europe and the U.S. concentrated upon some aspects of great interest regarding the approach of the entrepreneurial culture in the university, elements that are presented in the contents of this article.

2. General Premises Regarding the Development and Promotion of the Entrepreneurial University Model
The primary goal of a university with entrepreneurial orientation is represented by the growth of the employability of its graduates and also the increase of the degree of which they integrate on the labor market in an industry in which they gained competences and abilities and in which they specialized. At the same time, entrepreneurial universities aim to increase the capacity and interest of the students to develop their own business.

500

The American or British model of entrepreneurial university, which is currently being adopted by multiple universities in the world, stands out through clear orientation towards internal and external customer demands, including the business environment, materialized by the extension and consolidation of the partnership with all the parties interested in the universitys educational process. This type of university is concerned firstly with the quality of its products respectively professional and social competences offered, but also the results and performances obtained both in scientific and technological domain, and especially on the labor market. In this respect, the U.S. business environment is strongly involved and has a tight collaboration with the academic environment regarding the contents of educational programs, teaching methods and ways of passing on new knowledge, and also the competences the students should have at graduation. There exists a well-known interest from both parties to identify correctly the problems that the current society is confronted by, but also the needs of it. Therefore, a clear desire is manifested to make the necessary steps to correct mistakes, so that both parties would obtain the desired results. In this context, there are some basic requirements that need to be considered in the development and promotion of an entrepreneurial culture in the university, like: to assure a teaching staff that has the qualifications and training to teach entrepreneurial culture and other entrepreneurship related courses; to realize studies and researches connected to entrepreneurship in different domains or branches of the economy; to ensure a varied and comprehensive course support; to apply creative and innovative teaching and learning methods; to use efficient evaluating methods; to attain a teaching experience in a university from other countries; to assure a tight collaboration with the business environment. Universities have at hand a series of means to satisfy these requirements, such as: To elaborate curricula and syllabi that would promote learning experience that is recognized by potential employers, respectively: knowledge, experience, skills, abilities, and general competences in a certain domain of activity; To include in the study programs multiple and mandatory courses of entrepreneurship; To integrate some themes or subjects of entrepreneurship in other courses (for example: how to elaborate a business model; legal, general and specific requirements for a new venture; the taxation and fiscal system; a marketing plan; management of innovation; networking); To integrate in the study programs some activities or actions that have the purpose of acquiring work experience (except the internship); To focus the attention in the teaching and learning process on all the development and growth stages of a business (not only on the launch stage of a new business); To encourage initiative or voluntary actions from the students; To strengthen connections with the business environment and entrepreneurs (alumni, business people in general); To organize workshops and training programs for professors that teach entrepreneurship courses; To share good practices throughout the university and in other universities from the country and from abroad; To create a network and mobility programs for professors beyond the borders of the country; To create programs or counseling carrier clubs for students; To create business incubators. An important means that the universities have at their disposal, and which can fundamentally contribute to the promotion of the entrepreneurial culture, is represented by the pedagogy methods used. Some of the innovative teaching and learning methods used by entrepreneurial universities in the world are: workshops, debates, panels, negotiations, simulations, business games, drama, brainstorming, brain writing, ideas banks, projects, case studies, sketches, models, drawings, external guests (teachers and business persons), interviews or reports, Power Point presentations, lectures, video presentations (video-conference), audits, investigations, anecdotes, log journal, consultancy, assistance, networking exercises, online and written tests, comments on scientific articles or press releases paragraphs; visits in companies, internship, observation of a phenomenon or an idea in action. By applying these practices, the expected results regarding students are countless. We will present some: acquiring some behaviors, attitudes, skills, key competences in the entrepreneurship domain; motivation for launching a business; knowing all the stages in launching and developing a business; understanding values and entrepreneurial spirit and providing a calculated emotional response; the comprehension of the necessity to develop a relation with all the parties involved by the activity domain of the new business; applying in practice the competences and skills developed; increase of the number of graduates that develop their own business.

3. The Main Characteristics of the Entrepreneurial University

The U.S. or British model of entrepreneurial university, that most universities around the world tend to follow, stands out through a clear orientation towards its internal and external customers demands, including those of the business environment, materialized in the wide spreading and strengthening of partnerships with all parties interested in the universitys educational process. This type of university is firstly concerned with the quality of its products, but also with the results and achievements obtained both from a scientific or technological point of view, and mostly on the labor market. 501

Therefore, the business environment in the U.S. and U.K. is deeply involved in and collaborating with the academic environment regarding the contents of the study programs, methods of teaching and transferring newly acquired knowledge, as well as the competences that students must have acquired at graduation. There is a stated interest, declared by both parties, in correctly identifying the problems todays society is dealing with, but also in identifying its requirements, and a clear wish to take the necessary steps in order to correct the deficiencies and non-conformities is manifested, so that both parties get the desired results. In the U.S. and U.K. universities with entrepreneurial orientation, the management system emphasizes the following elements: the customer focus, the leadership system, strategic planning, process management, human resource management, and results measurement (Warnack 2003; Dew & McGowan 2004). In the following paragraphs we describe each one of these elements. a) A special attention is given to the universitys customers. In the U.S. and U.K. universities, the student is regarded from several points of view: as beneficiary of the information and knowledge provided by the professor; as a partner or active participant in the teaching and learning process; as a stakeholder of the university directly involved in the material assistance and support of the academic environment, with all the consequent rights and derived responsibilities. The current reform in the American and European higher education gives a high importance to the continual improvement of the communication and information system and also the process of knowledge transfer to the students, to the development of some fair systems of evaluating students performance, to the improvement of the system of financial support offered to students, but also to the extension of internationalization and increase of students mobility effort. b) As far as the leadership system is concerned, it is worth to be mentioned here the organization and setting-up of the work committees debating specific issues, such as: The Strategic Planning Committee, The Promotion and Title Committee, The Curriculum Planning Committee etc. Among permanent members of these committees there are students, graduates and business environment representatives, together with the teaching staff and the administration personnel. c) In elaborating the annual strategic plans, a series of specific stages are taken into account such as: defining the mission, the vision and key values the university promotes; establishing the general and specific objectives; identifying the action plans to reach the objectives; identifying and allocating the necessary resources; granting responsibilities to the human resources; identifying the evaluation and progress tracking methods; disseminating results by placing them at the disposal of the interested parties. d) In the U.S. and U.K. universities, a special attention is awarded to the process management, respectively the identification of: the key processes that add value to the universitys products and services, such as curriculum planning, the courses content planning and revising, the courses programming and supplying, student assistance, and student evaluation; the support processes that do not contribute directly through adding value, but support the key processes, such as student counseling, selecting and evaluating teaching staffs performance, raising funds, etc. the processes regarding the relationships with the partner and universitys external clients, processes like for instance: students recruitment, equipment acquisition. Multiple education researches demonstrate that, presently, the learning process that represents an important asset in providing the knowledge that develops the effective competencies of the students, overtakes as a subject of interest the teaching process that has represented until recently a favored subject in the paradigm of the educational process (James 2003; Loh et al. 1997; Ole Pors 2001). Adopting some new teaching and learning strategies in order to bring about the increasing responsibility of students as far as acquiring some competencies really requested by the labor market, but also the evaluation of own performances and professional evolutions is gaining more and more ground. a) Human resources management represents another point of interest focus for the management in the U.S. and U.K. universities, as far as the following issues are regarding: the projection and the description of the working system the job description, recognition/ acknowledgement and reward of the performance, the planning of human resources, etc.; identifying necessities of professional education, training/ instruction, qualification, etc.; identifying the requirements regarding the assurance of well-being and satisfaction for all the personnel. b) An important quality management principle promoted by the U.S. and U.K. universities is orientation towards results. In the following lines a few of the results demonstrated and obtained by the American quality and excellence-oriented universities are presented (Ole Pors, 2001; Kiefer, 2003): Regarding the evaluation of students satisfaction and performances: the overall grades the students received, the satisfaction level the students have reported to the assistance provided, the resources they have benefited from, the educational programs offered, the competencies achieved, etc. Regarding the human resources evaluation/ appraisal: the number of the articles in top quality journals with peer review, the participation of the teaching staff in the activity of the working committees, the quality of services provided to and within the society, etc. 502

Regarding the evaluation of the financial results: the number and the nature of the grants won through competition, the number of research contracts, the number of personal contribution on an internal and external plan, the volume of the funds rose by the alumni, etc. Regarding the evaluation of the performance on the market: positioning the educational programs on a local, national and international level. Regarding the evaluation of the global efficiency of the university: students profile, graduation marks, the salary received at the moment of graduation, etc.

4. Conclusions
In conclusion, we can say that the model of entrepreneurial university can be extended and reinforced successfully in the higher education institutions in Romania, regardless of their profile (business, economics, technology or human science), or the experience acquired in the field. Cultivating the entrepreneurial culture in the Romanian universities must be a process sustained by all the parties interested in the quality of the educational process and scientific research developed in universities, respectively by the direct involvement and total commitment of the entire professoriate, the academic community in general, in partnership with students, the business community and society as a whole.

References:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Blackmur, Douglas. Issues in Higher Education Quality Assurance. Australian Journal of Public Administration. Oxford: Jun 2004. Vol. 63, Iss. 2; p. 105 Botham, R. and Mason, C. Good Practice in Enterprise: Development in the UK Higher Education, National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship, Research Report 004/2007 Cole, R. E. From Continuous Improvement to Continuous Innovation, (Electronic version)/ Quality Management Journal, 2001, 8(4), 7-21 Dew, John Robert; McGowan Nearing, Molly. Continuous Quality Improvement in Higher Education. American Council on Education Praeger, Series on Higher Education. 2004 Evans, M. ICEBreaker, PALATINE, Higher Education Academy, Lancaster, 2006 Frank, A.I. Developing Entrepreneurship Skills in the Context of Higher Education, Built Environment Education Symposium: Building the Future, 5/6 September 2005 Grant, Delvin; Mergen, Erhan; Widrick, Stanley. Quality management in US higher education. Total Quality Management. Mar 2002. Vol. 13, Iss. 2; p. 207 James, Richard. Academic Standards and the Assessment of Student Learning: Some Current Issues in Australian Higher Education. Tertiary Education and Management. Dordrecht: Sep 2003. Vol. 9, Iss. 3; p. 187 Kiefer, W.N. A Systems View of Improving School Performance, Quality Congress ASQs Annual Quality Congress Proceedings, Milwaukee, 2003, 57, 59-64 Limpert, Charles G. Improving business-education relationships. Quality Progress. Milwaukee: Jul 1997.Vol.30, Iss. 7; pg. 71, 3 pgs Loh, Lawrence; Yong, Wee, Wee, Chow Hou,Chong, Chee Leong, Ngin, Phyllisis. Fostering total excellence in business education: assessment perspectives and learning issues. Journal of Workplace Learning. Bradford: 1997. Vol.9, Iss. 7; pg. 263 Ole Pors, Niels. Measuring students' performance and perceptions: Empirical studies in different dimensions of quality assurance at a library school. New Library World. London: 2001. Vol. 102, Iss. 11/12; p. 429 (7 pages) Warnack, M. (2003). Continual Programs (Electronic version)/ Quality Progress, Milwaukee, March, 42-49

9. 10. 11.

12. 13.

503

504