Supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Higher Education in Hungary
This report presents evidence-based analysis of current strategies and practices in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Hungary towards a value-creating use of knowledge resources for innovation and entrepreneurship. The analysis and recommendations are highly relevant for policy makers and HEI leaders in other countries. Increased attention to innovation and entrepreneurship both from public policy actors and HEI leadership has triggered an incremental change process in the organisational culture of HEIs and a new approach to education and research for students and staff. HEInnovate is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the OECD to promote the innovative and entrepreneurial higher education institution across Europe and beyond (www.heinnovate.eu).
Executive summary
Entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education institutions (HEIs) are no longer exclusively associated with business start-ups and technology transfer but are increasingly understood as core elements of a procedural framework for how the institution and its key stakeholders behave. For example, how staff and leadership nurture links between disciplines, the role of students in education and their involvement in research activities, how partnerships evolve to raise relevance and impact, and how the HEI supports nascent entrepreneurs. All of this is closely linked with what is often called the “third mission”, that is, the aim to apply and transform knowledge for economic, social and cultural development in the local economy, the country or on a global scale. Ideally, the third mission enhances education and research and is not perceived and organised as a separate function – that is, engagement with the wider world – of the HEI.