University—Enterprise Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper highlights the main findings of a study carried out within the framework of the European Commission's Tempus programme on university–enterprise cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. The study was launched in 1996 by the Commission with the technical assistance of the European Training Foundation and developed with the European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities (ESMU) and the Slovak Tempus Office. The author presents the results of desk research on a sample of Tempus projects, and sets out the conclusions and recommendations to policy makers, to project promoters and to the Tempus programme. She describes the nature of university–enterprise cooperation projects in Central and Eastern European countries, showing the active role of individuals, development agencies, local authorities and various interface structures. However, she points out that university–enterprise cooperation is still confronted by major constraints linked to people (the vision of the university, the place of university–enterprise cooperation in that vision, the lack of initiatives and skills to develop it) and to systems (the internal management structure of universities, the hierarchical positioning of university representatives, the legal framework and degree structure which impact on agreements between universities and enterprises).