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This paper demonstrates how simple general equilibrium models can be solved with the help of Microsoft Excel. Two different general equilibrium models for tax incidence analysis are used as illustrative examples. The methods presented here are intended to be beneficial to both students and teachers working with general equilibrium theory in the classroom and can easily be extended to various policy analysis term projects. The techniques presented here are simple and effective tools for inclusion in any student’s toolkit.

This paper presents a classroom experiment on pricing strategies available to monopolists. Each student makes production decisions as a monopolist during the experiment, learning from his/her own experiences what it means to be a price searcher. Full information is provided on cost conditions, while the demand function remains unknown to the participants. Given a sufficient number of periods, students will in principle be able to maximise their profits by applying a simple trial and error strategy. However, one of the objectives of the experiment is to demonstrate to students that search strategies based on economic principles are more efficient.

Several calls have been made to investigate the processes of change characterizing academia worldwide. In particular, the tension apparent between the ‘universal’ models (standards, rankings) on the one hand, and the cultural and social features of academia in specific countries on the other hand, was deemed very fruitful to be researched. Most Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries share a communist past and have transitioned toward a market economy, more or less rapidly or successfully. Their academic environment is characterized by common traits, but where apparent, improvements have mostly emerged through sustained individual efforts, rather than through coherent and systematic thinking of education officials. However, many challenges faced by accounting academics affiliated with institutions in CEE countries are similar, and the experience of others may prove very significant. Therefore, we want to give a more coherent perspective on the processes of change and of the evolutions happening at the regional level. The topics proposed for investigation include: the academic environment and the consequences on accounting research; the construction of the accounting academic’s identity, and the relationship between accounting education, research, and practice; and accounting education. The aim of this introduction to the special issue is to give an overview of these topics in accounting academia in CEE countries, by mobilizing our own understanding and experience, and the international literature.

European Retail Academy (ERA) was founded in February 2005 at EuroShop, the world leading exhibition for retail technology, by Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier and some of his academic friends to support the Bologna-process and the interaction between theory and application in the field. Today www.european-retail-academy.org has links to more than 225 research-institutes for trade/marketing/ tourism all over the world. One focus of Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier and his friends from the very beginning of the European Retail Academy was to exchange students like he himself experienced in multiple AIESEC-exchanges during his studies.

This article aims to review the economic education literature in Romania for the period 2011-2013, focusing on finding the accounting related topics. For the purpose of the analysis, the 99 articles are categorized in four main sections that are divided by subsections. Over the reviewed period, more than 160 authors contributed to the enrichment of economic education literature in Romania, publishing their papers in journals indexed in databases journals. The analysis revealed a predominance of papers debating the teaching methods, both traditional and modern (including E-learning), Romanian researchers being preoccupied of improving the teaching process in order to achieve the best quality for academic services. However, the research revealed a scarcity of accounting education topics while management information systems education is better represented.

The worldwide demand of young academics has constantly expanded throughout the last decades. The minimum requirements for entering the global academic labor market have increased and PhD students need to rise up to the expectations of a progressively demanding profession. This paper aims to fill the gap emphasized by several recent studies, which have voiced the need to improve the international competitiveness of Romanian higher education institutions (HEIs). By employing a participative observation study approach, we analyze the characteristics and structure of French business schools’ doctoral programs and provide a model of PhD training adapted to the current requirements of the international academic market. Moreover, we highlight the manner in which the curricula adjustments need to be accompanied by additional implementation programs and we underline the need for Romanian universities to make a clear distinction between PhDs and professional doctorates. Along with proposing an integrated model of doctoral training that can raise the international visibility of Romanian PhD programs, we discuss the potential long-term benefits of implementing this model.

Education and training research for business environment has become an important subject to debate in nowadays, because it allows the design of scenarios that contribute to economic and social development. In this paper, we propose to analyse the evolution of business educational models, in terms of new forms of learning: e-learning and MOOC. It will also be analysed the impact of educational methods in the virtual environment in the classic educational system. Last but not least there will be outlined the perspectives and opportunities of business education in the context of educational reform at European and global level. In this regard, it will be drawn the direction and position of Romania towards the reorganization of business education model.

This study offers insight into the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), as agreed and detailed by the Romanian qualifications framework, applied to the economic sector. By means of a survey conducted on 92 employing companies, it validates the importance of competencies for the Romanian labour market and employers' degree of satisfaction with the competencies of business graduates. In terms of typology, employers attach more importance to transversal competencies than to professional competencies, both at conceptual level and as degree of acquirement following higher education. The empirical analysis provides data on employers' ranking of transversal and professional competencies and identifies the classes of competencies deemed to be in short supply on the labour market. Through its results, the study enhances the relationship between the higher education system and the labour market, providing key information for an efficient implementation of the competence-based education system.

The author discusses the main limits of the widespread student protest in Italian universities. While several problems weigh on Italy's universities, the lack of organisation and unwillingness to discuss exhibited by the students prevents the successful reform of the higher education system.

The education is essential for the future of the young generation and the development of the countries. The paper emphasizes the consequences of investments in higher education, and its effectiveness, in correlation with the labour market requirements and perspectives. It is also proposed a few options regarding the appropriateness and effectiveness of the use of investment resources between the attending the university courses, starting a business or employing in a company in the context of post-crisis economic recession. At the same time, the paper emphasizes the role of higher education in the formation of new opinions, solutions and leaders should guide future societies in beneficial directions.

This paper focuses on the selection of supervisor for Ph.D. candidate in general, i.e. on the issue of establishing and sustaining a supervisory relationship between the professor and the Ph.D. candidate. While this relationship is essential for the success of the Ph.D. program in general and completition of dissertation in particular, there are many evidences in the practice that such a relationship may contain imbalances in the power between the professor/supervisor and the Ph.D. candidate, which may be discussed in the terms of equity and inequality. Based upon the literature review, this paper briefly presents the (in)equitable relationship between supervisor and Ph.D. candidate, demonstrates the supervisor selection issue by using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method and discusses about the equity theory as the guiding aid in establishing and sustaining a supervisory relationship.

It is well known that Mathematical Programming techniques are well-developed and with widespread application. It would be useful for researchers and practitioners in the information systems field to have a categorization that would show the types of problems that have been solved using these techniques. This paper provides this categorization

In a global world universities want to offer the best education to their students so that they can be competitive on the labour market both in the country where they studied and beyond its borders. The Romanian education system – currently undergoing reform – attaches great importance to the use of traditional efficient teaching tools, along with new alternative ones. The R data analysis system represents such an alternative method that the Ecological University of Bucharest uses in order to stimulate the student’s creativity in problem solving.

The idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is based on voluntary responsibility of companies for their operations in economic, social and environmental spheres as well as for ethical behavior. In accounting, it is reflected in the form of social accounting which deals with disclosing information on the organization’s achievements in respect of the CSR concept implementation. During the current economic crisis, company relationships with employees have become the most important of all the issues related to CSR. Additional challenges in this respect are posed by Generation Y comprising the people born after 1980 who enter the labor market. For them, the socially responsible employer is even more important than high earnings. The main aim of this paper is to present the results of the research carried out at the end of 2010 among a group of external students at Cracow University of Economics. The research was conducted one month before the students obtained their Bachelor’s degrees. The survey focused on determining how much knowledge the prospective graduates had about CSR, how important CSR was to them as a criterion for selection of their workplace and how they regarded the inclusion of information on CSR in the framework of the company’s accounting system.

The convergence of information technology (IT) with those dedicated to communication to create information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the recent centuries and decades has encouraged the application of innovations of technological, social and institutional forms to facilitate socio-economic and ecological development by nations – a process that started with the attainment of Industrial Revolution by Britain between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. This paper examines the relevance of ICTs for management education principles and socio-economic development in Nigeria. Issues described here include: context for development, management education in Nigeria –including enrolments in business management/administration; global applications of ICTs for development and education. It is recommended that to optimize ICTs applications to achieve principles of responsible management education for attaining the goals of sustainable development within dynamic global/national environments, Nigeria’s government must adapt and implement some of the good practices in the ICT4Education programmes that have been implemented in some countries around the world.

The purpose of this study is to investigate accounting professionals’ perceptions of (1) importance of education phases and environmental conditions in development of ethics awareness, (2) approaches in accounting ethics education in university and professional pre-qualification, and (3) coverage of accounting ethics education. Data was collected from public accountants via an online questionnaire during November and December, 2011. The questionnaire was developed based on a review of earlier studies. A total of 219 accountants replied to the survey. The findings demonstrated that most of the respondents (i.e. practicing accountants) have not taken ethics education previously. Secondly, the results provided evidence that all stages of education life, ranging from kindergarten to university, are important and contribute to the development of ethics awareness. Environmental factors are also important in the development of ethics awareness. Giving ethics as a stand-alone course is considered the most appropriate approach in teaching ethics. Responses indicated that “auditing” is the most and only course in which ethics should be taught. Moreover, the respondents approved the inclusion of ethics within various stages of the certified accountancy curriculum.

The article reviews intellectual and innovative factors of education development. These factors influence on wage system and increase it competitive.

Creativity is an unlimited source of energy and power, is also an essential factor of progress in the evolution of the modern world and can address every kind of problem. Promotion of the individual creativity, and particularly the team creativity, is the solution for the mankind has as a chance of survival and progress. In turn the creativity does not mean the only the reception and consumption of new, but first of all the creation of new. People create because they feel they need to have a deep development. In order to solve different crises, to make some changes it is necessary to stimulate the creativity.

This paper argues that the research Turkish economists do helps Turkey far less than it should, and too often it is done merely to get published and not to most effectively solve the problems that Turkey faces. It suggests two ways of dealing with such problems: one is for Turkish universities to develop a new journal-ranking method focusing on a particular research niche, and to use that ranking to evaluate research; the second is a voucher system that would give Turkish demanders of Turkish economic research more direct control over what research is done. Each proposal would change the incentive structure confronting Turkish economists, making what they want to do much more consistent with what Turkish society wants them to do.

The application of options pricing theory to value irreversible investment decisions has witnessed a marked increase over the last decade. For instructional and simplified applications, the Black-Scholes model is commonly demonstrated due to its tractability and acceptance in the finance community. This paper provides a detailed mathematical exposition of the Black-Scholes model. The main contribution of this paper is the step-by-step instructional account of the Black-Scholes model that can be used directly in the classroom to introduce stochastic calculus, arbitrage-free valuation, and option-pricing theory. In contrast with most Black-Scholes derivations found in the pedagogical literature, this paper develops the fair option price from an economic equilibrium perspective. Through this approach, it is hoped the reader will comprehend both the mathematics and economics underlying option pricing theory, as both are equally important.

Accounting profession has had a bad reputation in many countries for years. This might come from misinformation or misperception. This has been well studied around the world recently. The studies realized in the last decade mainly have been on the understanding and analyzing the opinions and/or perceptions of the public or the different communities on the professional accountants in different countries. Inspired from these studies, the purpose of the study is to examine any changes occurred on the negative perceptions of the business school students of Istanbul University on the Turkish accounting profession in five years from 2007 to 2012. In that regard, this study has sought whether any changes occurred in Turkey in five years; (1) on the factors affecting the students’ perceptions, (2) on their perceptions about the differences of the duties conducted by two different levels of the accounting profession, and (3) on their perceptions about the accounting profession by demographical features (gender, section, and level). A structured questionnaire was adopted from the study of Jackling (2002) and conducted first in 2007, and the study simply concluded that the accounting profession has a bad reputation for business school students in Turkey (Pekdemir and Pekdemir, 2011). This was not unique or new since it was the same in many countries. The study was repeated in 2012 in the same school of business in order to identify possible differences on the perceptions of the business school students. Four different sections of questions were asked to the students in both studies. The data gathered were analyzed through the SPSS Software Package. Findings of the comparison are interesting themselves, and also might be intriguing for particular people to make more comparative studies.

Education and research are important pillars of society based on knowledge, aiming the ensurance of personal development of every citizen, the prosperity of society and sustainable development. A priority in its framework should be the education for labour market under the conditions of ensuring equal opportunities. The finality of education for the labour market should be the preparation for the permanent participation in the national and European labour market, the education being a preventing poverty factor. The purpose of this paper is to determine the differences between "ideal quality" of the higher education system from the point of view of the main stakeholders, namely direct clients (graduates) and the actual quality appreciated by them based on their experience with the labour market. The research results highlight the existence of some gaps between the skills and abilities effectively developed and those that should be developed in accordance with the requirements of employers, in graduates’ opinion, formed on the basis of experience gained as employees or job applicants in the first year after graduation.

One obvious change in the nowadays education paradigm refers to the method of delivery the educational material. If the teacher traditionally stood in front of the room full of students and spoke to them, today ICT is increasingly used to facilitate the providing of courses, but also to ease communication between university, teachers and students. In the following article we will refer to teaching (as part of the educational process), which is becoming increasingly replaced by designing and providing appropriate courses for Computer Aided Education. This paper shows how the teachers work with “Blackboard Learn” elearning platform so they can build a course that closely match the needs of the learning process and student requirements.

The simulation methods are implemented to develop students' professional skills and competencies in the economic field, making the link between the academic and business environments. The paper presents these methods of simulation in areas such as trade, international business, tourism and banking, applied in the European Program POSDRU/90/2.1/S/63442 project.

Design and evaluation of language teaching materials has given rise to many academic debates about the usefulness of such materials as well as of their role in the professional development of language teachers. Should professionals in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) design their own materials or should they adopt published textbooks? The present study aims to contribute to such debates by proposing a set of materials design and evaluation criteria and arguing that there is a necessary link between the two stages in the process of developing teaching/learning materials. Reflecting on the process of designing an English for Public Administration textbook, an analysis is undertaken based on the criteria that informed the design of the textbook. The outcome of the analysis is an evaluation model that could prove relevant for the professional development of lecturers in ESP and could also inform the design and evaluation of textbooks in other disciplines.

This work proposes an approach for estimating value at risk (VaR) of the Mexican stock exchange index (IPC) by using a combination of the autoregressive moving average models (ARMA); three different models of the arch family, one symmetric (GARCH) and two asymmetric (GJR-GARCH and EGARCH); and the extreme value theory (EVT). The ARMA models were initially used to obtain uncorrelated residuals, which were later used for the analysis of extreme values. The GARCH, EGARCH and GJR-GARCH models, by including past volatility, are particularly useful both in instability and calm periods. Moreover, the asymmetric models GJR-GARCH and EGARCH handle differently the impact of positive and negative shocks in the market. The importance of the IPC in the Mexican economy raises the need to study its variations, particularly its downward movement; so, we propose to use VaR to calculate the maximum loss that IPC may have, at a certain level of reliability, in a given period of time, using more efficient models to dynamically quantify volatility. The RiskMetrics approach was parallelly used as a way to compare the methodology proposed. The results indicate that the ARMA-GARCH-EVT methodology showed a better performance than RiskMetrics, because of the simultaneous adjustment of ARMA-GARCH models for returns and variances respectively. Although estimates of the EGARCH models had fewer violations of VaR, the estimates of the three models used for volatility were more accurate than the others, evaluated at the same error and reliability levels through the Kupiec Likelihood Ratio test.

The purpose of this work is to present a relevant aspect of marketing approach of the activities carried by universities, respectively knowing, understanding and satisfying students’ needs, the main consumer category of the university product, in the conditions of current market of high education institutions. The universities are put in the position to find solutions to the problems caused by the stakeholders’ characteristics and by the existing competition on the educational market. The approach of marketing orientation in the university implies adapting the educational and scientific research step to create for the institution a brand image as a warranty of its sustainability on a competitive market by considering the needs and expectations of students. The conclusion is that there is a wide specialized literature that shows models that allow an adequate quantification of the students’ satisfaction as a resultant of concerning the insurance of high education quality by using univeristy marketing tools. Starting from the specialized literature, in the work was handled the quantification of the students’ satisfaction that have completed Bachelor and Master cycle in order to improve the activity of the university.

This paper reflects theoretical and empirical interrogations regarding concepts which gain interest in recent research in relation to school results and school-to-work transition of high education graduates: school-engagement, valorization of work, work ethics and school social capital. The initiative of such approach is linked to the identification of the obstacles and implicitly the mechanisms which facilitate an easier school-to-work transition of high education graduates of economic studies. In the current research we followed which are the motivations regarding work, and the measures of school engagement, identifying that students with higher academic engagement present greater interest in general criteria related to work and are less intrinsically motivated. The research findings in this area on the one hand confirm the importance of school-engagement for the students from tertiary education. On the other hand, it suggests, besides the mediated effect on school results on the successful insertion on the labor market, also a direct impact on their work engagement of these graduates. In addition to these aspects less visible and less studied, research in this field revealed other obstacles that occur in the successful integration of graduates in the workplace. It was found that both employers and young graduatesâ€(tm) employees assigned increased importance for the success in the workplace to transversal skills that are considered less developed through tertiary educational system. In addition, experience at the workplace, the practical training and voluntary involvement in different actions can also be useful tools in preparing students for the labor market. The data, both qualitative and quantitative, analyzed in this paper were collected within the project "Practical training of economists students. Inter-regional partnership in the labor market between universities and the business environment†. PRACTeam project is coordinated by University of Oradea - Faculty of Economic Studies, financed through European Social Fund - “Investing in People!†Contract no. POSDRU/90/2.1/S/64150.

The paper is the result of an empirical research conducted by the authors and is based on their experience in teaching at the academic level and also on the experiences of other professors from Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. This paper aims to develop a qualitative research on how teacher’s communication style is influencing students’ satisfaction, and to find out how it affects the relations with students, how e-learning by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can improve teacher – student communication, interactions, relations or student participation in and outside the class. The main research method was a questionnaire. Most of the questions reflect Hecht’s conceptualization of communication satisfaction, and also other authors contributions on the subject like Alan K. Goodboy, Matthew M. Martin and San Bolkan. The questionnaire was used also to find answers to how new modern informatics techniques can improve teacher-student communication, relations, interaction and participation in and outside the class. The sample included the students from the second year from public administration specialisation and a small number of teachers. During the research process we found out more about how well did we managed to communicate with our students from the second year and what we can do in order to improve our communication process based on their preferences. In the end, the paper presents some practical solutions for improving both persuasive communication between teachers and students and the interactions between them using IT&C instruments for a more effective participation in and outside the class.

In order to keep up with the changing economic environment, graduates from business schools must be prepared to face different challenges. In fact, it is the educational system that must be configured properly, so it can create student competencies in a dynamic way. A research has already been conducted on the subject of dimensions in education for international business, and identified the most important ones (Tartavulea et all, 2012). The purpose of this article is to analyze some of the informatics solutions for business simulation and compare their mechanisms and results in terms of student satisfaction regarding the preparation for the labor market. As the economic environment is becoming more complicated in terms of financial markets and products diversification, the new comers in the labor field must have the knowledge to understand the mechanisms of the market and the skills necessary to keep businesses on top of the wave.

Education and higher education in particular is one of strategic priorities for development, which guarantees progress. Its role is related to all characteristics of a society, and it undoubtedly constitutes one of the most important areas of life of a nation. It has stable and long-term impact on all aspects of activities related to people and their welfare. The challenge to be faced in the transition period requires that higher education in Albania to be developed, consolidated and follow the trend of higher education in developed countries. Quality itself and by using the continuous quality improvement methods by universities, it constitutes the basis for ensuring the success of the Albanian higher education institutions in the future. In this paper, through the use of literature, the questionnaires and interviews directed mainly to the professors / pedagogues working in Albanian public higher education institutions, the focus is to show the continuous quality improvement methods used by universities / faculties / departments, and to test the hypothesis: The use or not of the continuous improvement methods is dependent on the studies type (those higher education institutions that offer first cycle studies, first and second cycle studies, or first, second and third cycle studies) that the higher education institution offers.

As the global economic environment is permanently changing and evolving, the educational system must prepare young people to face the challenges of a real job. The traditional approaches for teaching international business in universities is focused on sharing knowledge and as far as creating student competencies, the educational method is mainly static. The purpose of this article is to analyze a relative new learning method, which can be applied in the area of international economic environment and consists of using business simulation as a dynamic component of the educational process. We aim to present our researches regarding the use of this method in universities and focus on a case study of how this method was implemented in The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. Using the data collected from participants in an internship project, which was based on business simulation in virtual enterprises, we will decide upon the benefits of applying this educational method in universities

Finance professionals must frequently forecast financial statements. The common practice for forecasting financial statements is to apply the percentage of sales method. In this paper, we develop a new method for forecasting financial statements based data available from The Risk Management Association. This method offers three advantages over the percentage of sales method. First, it specifies the appropriate percentages for each account using industry average data. Second, it allows the developer to use any figure in the income statement or balance sheet as a starting point. For example, an investor who knows only that they have $100,000 available to start a company can forecast a balance sheet and income statement. Third, the percentage of sales method applies only to the income statement, while the method developed here allows estimation of both the income statement and balance sheet. Statements produced using the technique presented here are easily defendable to skeptical bankers.

Even if the tertiary education system is being improved, the employment rate of the freshly graduates is still not balanced with the labour market. The general objective of the present study is to integrate this matter as an influence factor of regional development in South-East Europe. The methodology regards three specific objectives, pursuing the establishment of key points in improving the sustainable connection between higher education and the business environment. First, a literature review is made for the debate basis. Second, an analysis for creating such bridges is pursued empirically through a case study at West development region level, in Romania. Third, the case study is exemplified by an analysis of educational institutional development through European projects. The results target the development of a methodology for creating bridges between the two environments.

Using Japanese panel data for 2006-2009, this study attempts to examine how the pass rate of law school students taking the new bar examination influences the number of applicants for the law school in the following years. The major finding is that the higher the law school student pass rate, the greater the number of applicants for the law school becomes. Furthermore, the positive effect of the pass rate is larger for a prestigious university’s law school than for other schools. It follows that the “brand” and the school’s current performance are complementary in increasing demand for places in the law school.

Studies on the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the context of higher education have been focused primarily on the implementation of TQM as an institutional initiative. In many cases is implemented Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI as part of TQM) as department-based initiative, but rarely as a project institution-wide supported. The focus of this paper is to investigate how the Albanian public universities are implementing the concepts and processes of TQM/CQI in their activities, and focus on using continuous improvement methods in higher education focusing on the institution-wide and departmentbased initiatives. Also, there were identified general drivers, obstacles, and the results derived from the implementation of CQI methods.

Human resource is considered to be the most valuable resource in the knowledge society. Therefore the whole education system acquires an increased importance because of its task of forming this kind of resource. On the other hand, a characteristic of these times is globalization. A possible response of universities around the world to this requirement may be found in the form of university consortiums.

The purpose of this research was to determine what skills alumni from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (RSC) and regional employers think are important for the workplace. The results of the RSC study were compared to results from the report, College Learning for the New Global Century, sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Managing time, speaking/oral communications skills, and having strong interpersonal skills were in the top five skills identified by both employers and alumni of The Richard Stockton College. A statistically significant greater percentage of employers who participated in the study commissioned by the Association of American Colleges and Universities identified knowledge of global issues as being an essential learning outcome compared with the employers and alumni surveyed in the RSC study who identified knowledge of global issues as being a very important or important skill for the workplace. The lower priority given to global issues and international perspectives by employers and alumni in this study may have been due to the location of their workplaces. Respondents to the surveys were located primarily in the central and southern areas of New Jersey where industries and corporations had a regional rather than an international focus. Faculty in the School of Business should consider incorporating those skills identified as important or very important by the majority of alumni and employers into the curriculum as well as emphasizing global issues in their courses.

The study examines students' perceptions of the effectiveness of teaching and learning in business studies programs in the polytechnic institutions in Ghana. This research is a replica study (Hamid and Pihie, 2004). Two major factors are employed to measure students' perceptions of effective teaching and learning. They are Lecturers' Characteristics and Teaching Methodology. Findings of the study show how respondents perceive the qualities possessed and exhibited by lecturers with regard to the two main constructs. Descriptive and inferential statistics are reported. F ratio and ANOVA were used to show the significant differences in students' perceptions of the two factors based on age, class, and department. There were significant differences in the perceptions of overall Lecturer Characteristics, and in the perceptions of Teaching Methodology based on these variables. The study revealed high students’ perception of teaching quality and learning in the Polytechnics in Ghana. The significant differences found were related to age, class and departments

The advance to knowledge society is considered, in the world, as a necessary evolution to ensure the durable development in the context of „new economy”, based mainly on intense-intellectual products and activities, as well as to realize an advanced socio-human civilization. In this context the competent institutions to take care the education of citizens are forced to rethink the development strategies by going so far as to change the forms of functioning, and the whole educational process suffers changes designed to make it more flexible and adaptable to the requirements of players in the labor market. This paper intends to argue in a new manner learning, an essential part of the educational process, an activity which takes place in a modern and effective educational environment, the virtual university.

Global Computer Systems (GCS) is a hypothetical multinational company in the IT industry. The company is a major player in the industry catering to clients from a variety of industries. GCS has different segments specializing in major areas of its operation. The case provides an opportunity to examine various issues that need consideration while making capital budgeting decisions. One of the significant issues is that of determining the cost of capital on the basis of which the hurdle rate is calculated in deciding whether a project is worth accepting. This forms the central issue around which the case is structured. This case is suitable for use in a core Finance courses of MBA programs, and for use in MBA and under-graduate senior level international finance courses. Ideally, the case should be distributed well before the session so that students have adequate preparation time to go through the case and visit relevant internet sources mentioned therein. The case discussion may take up anywhere between 60 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the depth to which the students are intellectually stimulated to delve into. Gordon Crown, Chief Financial Officer of GCS, would like you to help him develop a company-wide cost of capital policy that is consistent with modern finance theoretical constructs. He would also like you to provide your recommendation on the acceptability of the projects. He also feels that since stock prices often fluctuate, it would be advisable to use book value weights in computing the component capital costs and the cost of capital. However, his young deputy, Helen Chang who is a recent MBA graduate, feels that market prices are very important indicators of the health of the company and they provide very good signals to the corporation in terms of the future directions. As such, she feels that the market value weights approach would be the best approach. She is also of the opinion that the Required Rate of Return on any given project, in addition to the WACC, should also include various risk premiums like stand-alone or project specific risk which can be further broken down into political risk, repatriation risk, exchange rate risk etc. Further, she believes that the required rate of return should be increased by about 1% to allow for capital investment projects that have no cash inflows, such as pollution control equipment and safety equipment.

The paper focused on building a quality management model able to bring together the two main axes of higher education – education and research, and to ensure the quality continuous improvement from the perspective of the main two actors directly involved in these processes: students and professors. Based on a thorough analysis and critical views of quality management models applied in university education, the paper will develop potential steps for building a new quality model. The steps will go through analysis of universities internal and external environment using strategic management models and aiming to develop a set of strategies and strategic objectives focused on quality.

The objective of this paper is to portray the Romanians’ entrepreneurial current prototype, following to their cultural background and entrepreneurial education – as result of the authors’ own research, and compared to previous similar studies. The research methodology includes both secondary and primary research. The landscape of the entrepreneurial activity in Romania is centred on the profile of the Romanian entrepreneur as offered by “The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor”. The results of two studies completed in Romania, based on Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions, are analyzed too. As primary research, the paper presents the results of the authors’ investigations around two focus groups which were conducted in Romania. Consequently, the Romanian Entrepreneurial Prototype was developed (2008-2009). In this context, the importance of entrepreneurial higher education is highlighted as well. The research results are important for entrepreneurs and business consultants as well as for strategists and education policy makers – aiming at developing entrepreneurship.

This study sought to examine students’ perceptions of their learning experience in the introductory accounting courses at three colleges and universities in the United States. Questionnaire responses were collected from 375 students at the end of the second introductory course. The student population consisted primarily of business students. The study identified a set of six factors that represent students’ learning experience in introductory accounting. The identified set includes: accounting basics, how to learn, job satisfaction, accounting agencies, career opportunities, and career prestige. These study results provide important feedback for the process of redesigning undergraduate accounting curricula to improve students’ learning experience in the introductory courses.

The purpose of this paper is to present relevant aspects of the marketing approach of the universities’ activities in the current market conditions of higher education institutions. Universities are placed in the position to find solutions to the problems of stakeholder characteristics and to the competition on the educational market. Marketing approach of educational services involves the orientation to internal and external customer needs, adapting the educational and scientific research approach to create a brand image of the institution as a guarantee of its sustainability in a competitive market. The conclusion that emerges is that there is a rich specialized literature appeared especially after the ‘80s that presents the marketing tools that allow the construction of viable competitive strategies as components of university management performance.

Past research on team formation and composition reveals that team member attributes play a role in how students perceive each others’ contributions to a team project. Can attribute-based profiling be used during the peer appraisal process so that a holistic-based assessment tool can still provide meaningful feedback to the student being rated? Our study shows that students can develop a profile of the ideal team member at the start of the project that is consistent with their overall assessment of a team member’s performance at the end of the process.

In our days, the computer assisted instruction became a reality. The continuous perfecting of evaluation techniques and their adaptation to be used in training assisted by the computer is a recognized necessity. This paper work presents some theoretical and practical aspects of evaluation, an essential part of the educational process, an activity which takes place in a modern and effective educational environment, the virtual university.

Far better and more efficient teaching and understanding of economics, which predominantly encompasses human behaviors, is of the utmost importance. Both the correctness of personal financial decisions that individuals will make and the success of economic policies implemented and to be implemented at the macro level, require a through knowledge of economics and its fundamental rules. This study is an attempt to attract attention to the importance of utilizing literature, theatre, cinema, and humor, which are matters as everyday as economics, rather than employing classical presentation methods in economics education, in order to render economics more enjoyable, understandable, and appealing to college students.

The education market is undergoing a deep transformation process. Until several decades ago, concepts such as „Management University” or „Enterprise University” were unconceivable. However, as time passed, the social - economical development, globalization and informational revolution have transformed many of the Western universities in vectors of transnational education. Presently, there is an increase in the intensity of the discussions regarding the education services’ market and the new university models: - management university, resulting from the humboldian one, by switch from the “college” leadership, chosen by the academic body, to the “manager” one, choice based on a competition; - the enterprise university, as an extension to large corporations, which see education as a service with market value. The OECD reports, those of the Global Bank and UNESCO reveal the existence of genuine commerce with universitary education services and professional knowledge; hence, the urgency to adapt the university education to the work market’s requirements.

Quality in Higher Education has become a primary agenda of the countries worldwide. In the context marked by expansion of higher education and globalization of economic activities, education has become a national concern in developing countries with an international dimension. To cope with this changing context, developing countries have been pressurized to ensure and assure quality of higher education at a nationally comparable and internationally acceptable standard. It is generally acknowledged that globalization has created tremendous impacts on higher education in this first dec-ade of twenty-first century. Externally, there have been unprecedented changes both at global and national context. The benefits of globalisation accrue to the countries with highly skilled human capi-tal and it is a curse for the developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean without such specialised human capital. This paper delves the recent trends of higher education in developing countries. It addresses the various challenges of higher education in the developing countries in the context of 21st century. Besides, the paper examines the response of higher education to globalization in developing countries and discusses the major challenges that the globalization brought to higher education.