Transformation in higher education and financial sustainability : the IFIE-concept

Abstract

The world today is in a period of transition. Traditional higher education institutions also seem to have lost whatever stability they may once have possessed. A failure to respond to exponential change in society affects the economic growth and the development of any enterprise. Higher educational institutions have had to make a paradigm shift; no longer can they merely systematize value (using, measuring, controlling and managing knowledge), they must now create value by formulating and producing market-driven niche products (economic value of knowledge) congruent with the existing or desired mission, vision, strategic imperatives and intrinsic nature of the institution. It is argued that the adaptive responsiveness towards the implementation of the forces arising from the synergistic effects embedded within the integration of financial and intellectual capital (entrepreneurial skills and creative ideas in the minds of people that do not form part and parcel of a service contract/job description) shaped by entrepreneurial activity (IFIE-concept) could revitalize processes and attitudes and prevent educational institutions from becoming poverty stricken academic communities - i.e., transform the institution into robust and independent academic bodies with identity, integrity and self esteem.