This article is devoted to the study of scientific thought about the functioning of entrepreneurial universities. This is the first step of a more deep study devoted to the adoption of the concept of the entrepreneurial university to the domestic conditions, which functions in the system of international knowledge transfer. Structurally, this article consists of several logically related conditional sections. The first part of the study is devoted to the review of scientific literature on the functioning of the entrepreneurial university as a subject of the international knowledge transfer system. The author analyzes the main domestic and some foreign approaches to the definition of «entrepreneurial university», highlights its most significant features. Within the framework of the literary review, an international knowledge transfer as a system consisting of the educational services transfer and technology transfer has been analyzed. The concept of educational service and its main characteristics are studied. The main categories of customers of educational services of the university are determined. All of the above-mentioned elements of the international knowledge transfer are also considered in the context of the educational services market. In particular, the study examines the educational services market as a system of economic relations with its inherent characteristics. The content of innovation activity as an element of knowledge transfer of entrepreneurial universities is revealed. According to the research results, the author concludes that there is no unity in the scientific literature and proposes the author's definition of entrepreneurial university as a higher educational institution which, through a combination of fundamental and practical knowledge, generates marketable products (educational, scientific, innovative) that can be commercialized both on the domestic and foreign markets of educational, scientific and technical services and innovations.