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The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the current picture of higher education and conditions for the application of benchmarking. The chosen examples of benchmarking projects conducted in higher education illustrate the spectrum of benchmarking usage. The authors conclude the paper with a recommendation for the employment of benchmarking in the higher education environment, especially in the light of competition pressures and rapid economic development. (Contains 6 figures.)

While higher education is regarded a high priority for economic development in many countries, public budgets often fall short to support desired levels of expansion in higher education. This leads to cost-sharing: students and their families are required to contribute more to the costs of higher education. This paper explores worldwide trends to cope with this issue based on the following questions: Is it fair to ask for larger contributions from students? What are the global patterns and forms of higher private shares in the costs of higher education? And what is the impact of cost-sharing on higher education access and equity? (Contains 4 tables and 2 footnotes.)

The author, a spokesperson for Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW), a major German investment bank, describes the efforts that this institution has made to stimulate the development of Entrepreneurship studies in German universities. These efforts got underway in 1998, when KfW financed the setting up of a professorial chair in new company formation at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. Other chairs in other German universities followed. The author outlines the challenges to such university programmes in Germany and lists a number of recommendations to make instruction in the subject successful. KfW is promoting the generalization of entrepreneurial culture, without which Germany will be excluded from major economic developments.

An entrepreneurial university must undertake two tasks: it must train future entrepreneurs, persons who will found their own businesses, and also develop an entrepreneurial spirit in students in all subject areas. Second, it must operate in an entrepreneurial manner itself, organizing business incubators, technology parks, and the like, involving students in these organizations and, through them, assisting students and graduates in the founding of businesses. Financial assistance to start-ups should eventually be repaid to the given university from the profits made by the maturing companies and then be reinvested in new start-ups. Thus the entrepreneurial university will contribute to the development of its region, and through co-operation with other entities, to economic development in general.

At the start of the Twenty-First Century, European universities must play a number of roles in terms of social and economic development. In particular, they must increasingly serve as engines for local and regional development, thus filling a niche that only seems logical for them. At the same time, universities will form élites, particularly local élites; however, those universities that are world-class institutions will and should educate global élites. In performing the latter role, European universities in the Twenty-First Century will reassume a role, seized by American universities in the Twentieth Century, which they had successfully played in the Nineteenth Century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continued world-wide economic and human development will require substantial leaps in access to learning, knowledge, and peers. A major expansion of capacity and efficiency in: (i) knowledge distribution, (ii) learner productivity, and (iii) teaching is required. A broader notion of personal knowledge management is needed … one that will help knowledge workers obtain and maintain lifelong preparation for the global knowledge economy. Wholly new models for providing access to lifelong continuous learning and personal knowledge management are needed. The full spectrum of component functions and costs within traditional education systems are being unbundled so as to allow separate functions to be selectively retained and re-designed independently, then reconfigured, alongside creative new functions. This article offers a new model for addressing these issues. The purpose is not so much to prescribe the best answer, but rather to offer a structure for thoughtful debate and for commercial testing in the international market-place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]