This book analyses the importance of the entrepreneurial university, specifically in relation to the creation of entrepreneurial ideas and attitudes in students and entrepreneurial initiatives in academic institutions. The aim of the editors and contributing authors is to provide the reader with a set of experiences illustrating the advantages of communicating and encouraging entrepreneurship among students, thereby highlighting the “third mission” of the university: the need to adopt entrepreneurial strategy without disrupting the quality of teaching and research. Featuring initiatives from institutions around the world, the authors argue that the increasing importance of knowledge in the technical and social dimensions of today’s world provides greater relevance to the entrepreneurial university. In this context, universities transcend their traditional focus on teaching and basic research to carry out technology transfers, marketing ideas, and patent registrations, and incorporate spin-off companies that contribute to industrial innovations, economic growth, and job creation. In the teaching dimension, the entrepreneurial university represents a focus on programs which train students in the applications and most advanced practices in knowledge-driven fields. The book addresses such questions as: Can marketing ideas deteriorate the quality of research in the long term? What importance does the cultural framework have for an entrepreneurial education? What circumstances and programs facilitate spin-offs in universities What are the key features of entrepreneurial universities? In reference to entrepreneurship education in its broadest sense, then, it corresponds to the framework of ideas and general features on which entrepreneurship is founded: in-depth knowledge of the projects or ventures which they wish to carry out, capacity to perceive the relevant characteristics of the environment, and the leadership and goal setting skills to achieve success.

Over the past years, business schools have been experimenting with distance learning and online education. In many cases this new technology has not brought the anticipated results. Questions raised by online education can be linked to the fundamental problem of education and teaching, and more specifically to the models and philosophy of education and teaching. Virtual Corporate Universities: A Matrix of Knowledge and Learning for the New Digital Dawn offers a source for new thoughts about those processes in view of the use of new technologies. Learning is considered as a key-strategic tool for new strategies, innovation, and significantly improving organizational effectiveness. The book blends the elements of knowledge management, as well as organizational and individual learning. The book is not just a treatment of technology, but a fusion of a novel dynamic learner (student)-driven learning concept, the management and creation of dynamic knowledge, and next-generation technologies to generic business, organizational and managerial processes, and the development of human capital. Obviously, the implications of online learning go far beyond the field of business as presented in this book.

This book provides an overview of the major findings of the comparative research project, Changes in Networks, Higher Education and Knowledge Society (CINHEKS). The main aim of this international comparative research project is the analysis of how Higher education institutions are networked within distinct knowledge societies in two key regions of the world: Europe and the United States of America. This research project was carried out in four European countries (Finland, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom) and in two different states in the United States of America. In addition, during the course of the research, a team from the Russian Federation joined the CINHEKS study. The analysis is contextually grounded in a comparative policy analysis focused on the main developments and understandings of the ideas surrounding the term knowledge society, in all countries concerned. Empirical elaboration is established via a series of sequential studies, each building, incrementally, on the previous study. These studies include institutional profiles of higher education institutions, institutional case studies, and an international comparative survey that illuminates academics’ social networks. The research findings broaden our understanding of the differences and similarities in how higher education institutions and individual academics are networked within and between societies that understand themselves as knowledge societies. The book introduces a novel analytical synthesis, which asserts contemporary societies have evolved into Networked Knowledge Societies. Methodologically, the book both challenges and raises the bar for previous approaches in comparative higher education, in terms of research design, execution and lays the groundwork for a new generation of international comparative higher education research.

"Climate change is a matter of global concern and specific sectors of society such as universities need to engage and be active in the search for regional and local solutions for what is a global problem. Despite the fact that many universities all around the world are undertaking remarkable efforts in tackling the challenges posed by climate change, few of such works are widely documented and disseminated. The book ""Universities and Climate Change"" addresses this gap. The book pursues three aims. Firstly, it presents a review of the approaches and methods to inform, communicate and educate university students and the public on climate change being used by universities around the world. Secondly, it introduces initiatives, projects and communication strategies undertaken by universities with a view to informing students and other stakeholders in order to raise awareness on matters related to climate change. Finally, the book documents, promotes and disseminates some of the on-going initiatives."

This collection, now in paperback, explores how universities are coping with the range of reforms and changes taking place across higher education today. Analyzing areas such as leadership, quality management, strategic thinking, collegiality and academic work, and from the perspective of different agents within higher education including students, academics and management, this book examines the various differences between reform attempts and the actual changes happening in universities.