Entrepreneurialism and Private Higher Education in Europe.

Abstract

It is difficult to analyse private universities in Europe (including those that are part of the EUEREK case studies) in the context of entrepreneurialism in the form the concept has emerged in the basic literature on the subject and available case studies. The private sector in higher education in Europe, with several exceptions (e.g. Portugal and Spain) — from the point of view of both numbers of institutions, share of enrolments in the sector, and study areas offered — has been an educational phenomenon of the transition countries. In some countries (e.g. Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands), nominally private institutions are funded in practice with public money, in various forms and under different umbrellas.This chapter is based, in more theoretical terms, on the conceptual work on 'entrepreneurial', 'enterprising', and 'proactive' universities by Clark 'self-reliant' and 'enterprising' — as well as; more generally, 'successful' — universities by Shattock and Williams, and Sporn's notion of 'adaptive' universities. In empirical terms, it is based on case studies of entrepreneurialism in universities drawn from the EUEREK study on entrepreneurialism in private institutions within the context of what Clark, Shattock, Williams, and Sporn suggest for the study of public institutions.