The role of enterprise and entrepreneurship within higher education and effective economic governance across Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Economic governance across Central and Eastern Europe, in the light of transitions to market economies and deepening European Union governance and regulation, is a complex issue of multiple variables, including economic reforms, currencies, fiscal discipline and investments. Within that complexity also lie the perceived capabilities of upcoming generations of students graduating from universities in the region, or graduating elsewhere to return to the region, and starting their working careers. The aim of this study is to focus on university graduates, and to address aspects of the potential role of enterprise and entrepreneurship-related activities within higher education in helping to shape future economic governance across Central and Eastern Europe. The study also draws in part upon the impact of the European Union's Erasmus programme (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) that has now been in place for over a quarter of a century, as well as its 2014 successor Erasmus+ which combines all the EU's current schemes for education, training, youth and sport. Such investments in the continued evolution of higher education may in time help to establish some of the foundations for effective economic governance across the whole region.Keywords: enterprise, entrepreneurship, education, economy, economic governance, Europe.JEL Classification : L26, J68IntroductionEffective economic governance has risen to prominence in Europe in recent years, particularly since the European debt crisis established itself in 2009, following a series of international, regional and national financial and economic crises in the preceding years. The causes of the crisis are widely debated and include a combination of factors such as the globalisation of finance, relatively relaxed credit conditions, trade imbalances, real estate bubbles, recessions, fiscal policies, government bail-outs and other related issues. It even resulted in the President of the European Central Bank (Trichet, 2011) using the phrase quantum leap in describing the magnitude of change required. The causes will be the subject of much further analysis over future years and this research concentrates more on the solutions being adopted rather than the causes.The European Commission has therefore, by necessity, reacted to the crisis by adopting a succession of reforms to the European Union rules. These were introduced through the Six Pack, the Two Pack and the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (European Commission, 2014). These include new surveillance systems for budgetary and economic policies and a new budgetary timeline known for the Euro area that is laid out in the EU's policy-making calendar known as the European Semester. The key elements of the new system are:* Coordination throughout the year: The European Semester.* More responsible budgeting.* Stepped-up surveillance in the Euro area.* Monitoring extended to macro-economic imbalances.Whether or not these reforms prove enough, and whether indeed they are implemented in the manner necessary to achieve the desired results, will be seen in the coming years and subsequent reforms may well yet be needed. However, it is a step-change in initiating such reforms in the first place and it is worth noting that, in the definition of economic governance provided by Dixit (2008), the focus is on the existence of both formal and informal processes to support economic activity. These EU reforms reflect that in that they do represent a stepchange in economic governance in Europe, with the aim of establishing a more solid platform for what is the overall aim for Europe: Growth (Gill and Raiser, 2012). Much of the growth agenda will rely on effective management and it is parts of this issue that this research addresses.At a time when some regional economies outside Europe are experiencing degrees of strength and growth, it is important for Europe to re-establish its growth and competitiveness agenda so that it can invest in achieving prosperity across the region. …