Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology

Public funding of higher education is an important topic within European governmental agenda, especially in times of budgetary austerity. Thus, given the challenges higher education industry faced in the last decades, the present paper aims at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a few national funding patterns of higher education institutions (HEIs) within the European Union. Using the method of content analysis, the study conducted in Finland, Greece and Romania also reveals the effects the national funding patterns might have on the competition and competitiveness of national HEIs in the European higher education market. The issue of performance funding of HEIs is also addressed. Moreover, the authors argue for the necessity of integrating institutional performance indicators as an important criterion for allocating public resource to HEIs, in order to raise quality, competition and competitiveness of national HEIs on the European market of higher education.

  Funding Higher Education in a few EU Countries: Implications for Competition and Competitiveness in Higher Education (703.1 KiB, 2,190 hits)

I have taken this theme into discussion, because I consider if of great actuality. Thus, though it is unanimously admitted the fact that the Romanian tourism is a branch of the national economy with a huge potential, and, at official level, it is considered to be a priority domain, its performance is not satisfactory yet. Therefore, I consider it very important to identify the most relevant aspects related to the deficiencies still existing in the system and the causes generating them.

In this regard, my approach aims both at the domestic environment, which is very dynamic and where the tourist activities take place, and also at the extremely strong influence of the foreign environment, materialized by the intensification of the globalization process.

  Opinions on the Aspects Affecting the Performance of Romanian Tourism (274.1 KiB, 2,543 hits)

“Free flow of ideas” is another component of the liberty confirmed by the EU Constitution who seeks to open without restrictions, for the benefit of all countries, of participation to the expansion of the European innovative heritage. The European Commission released on February 1 this year the first “scoreboard”1 on innovation performance for 2010. Corresponding to this report, the EU has failed to catch up with the gap that sets it apart from USA and Japan in the field of research and innovation (especially in the private sector).

The analysis of macroeconomic indicators shows developments, insufficiently fast, within the EU. However, given the economic crisis and its impact on all activities including on research, the efforts deserve to be highlighted. Currently, the EU is, however, before India and China (the most emerging countries of the world)2 trying to revitalize an area of innovation and research through considerable financial efforts.

  The Initiative “The Innovation Union” (200.5 KiB, 2,672 hits)