The exploration of university ethos – neoliberalism versus entrepreneurial wisdom

This study aims to highlight the resilience and innovation of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU) in the face of internal and external risks, particularly during times of war and political instability. KNU’s commitment to advancing knowledge is evident through its successful maintenance of educational, scientific, and economic activities and its proactive measures to counter propaganda and misinformation. The university has prioritized the psychological and emotional support of its students and staff and has minimized student losses by implementing flexible forms of education and individual counseling. KNU has also strengthened its international partnerships and grant initiatives. Despite significant losses, the university has maintained its material and technical infrastructure by leveraging various funding sources and developing a strategic trajectory toward an entrepreneurial model. KNU’s strategic objectives include transforming the university into the core of innovation clusters, establishing a risk management system, and monitoring the labor market. KNU’s experience could provide valuable insights for other universities facing similar challenges, emphasizing the importance of effective risk management, crisis communication, and psychological support for the academic community.

Acknowledgment
The authors express their gratitude to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for their bravery and resilience in the fight for the country’s freedom and independence against new threats in the 21st century. They also thank the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv staff for their unwavering commitment, selflessness, and psychological fortitude, enabling maintaining and expanding the university’s resources despite challenging circumstances. Overall, the authors are optimistic about the future and confident in the prospect of victory.

The article is devoted to the generalization and development of the terminology that is used to describe the essence and content of the concept “entrepreneurial university”. The results of the literature review allow us to present the concept “entrepreneurial university” in the form of a system of interrelated economic terms. Based on the analysis of search queries, using the databases of Scopus and Google Scholar, the publications that reveal the content of the concept “entrepreneurial university” were selected; the features and key characteristics of the definition of this concept by various authors were defined; the authors’ interpretation has been provided. The analysis of research in the field of university entrepreneurship, which currently covers 314 articles published in various scientific journals, allows us to inductively describe the dynamic process of university entrepreneurship based on the literature synthesis. The presented definition of “entrepreneurial university” concept is based on an analysis of the evolution of ideas about the subject of the entrepreneurship theory and modern scientific management approaches and allows establishing the semantic network that reflects the inner content of the concept “entrepreneurial university”.

The COVID-19 has put higher education institutions in a new situation and identified bottlenecks in the financial structure of institutions and education systems in general. However, for Ukrainian universities, this situation can be seen as an opportunity to achieve financial autonomy. This study is devoted to the consideration of a possible tool for the financial autonomy of Ukrainian classical universities, most of which are state-funded. The paper considers the methodology of a possible tool for the accumulation of external financing – the endowment fund. The case analysis and analytical consideration of world practice are applied. As a result, a model for financing the university in its transition to the innovation and entrepreneurship model is proposed as the chain “endowment fund – development of start-ups”. This example can become the basis of the road map for other national HEIs, as well as the practice of wider use in the field of higher education. However, despite most of the national classical universities have declared a course to an innovative development, which further raised the necessity of external funding, top management and general economic situation require more attention. As this transition to a new model of the university is taking place along with the financial stabilization and under economic and social upheavals, the formation of a new culture of online communication is necessary. Thus, the proposed model is the practical guideline of possible decisions but mostly the start-point for further discussion and research.

Acknowledgment
This paper is done in the framework of the grant project “Financial stabilization of classical universities in the context of the global consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic” funded by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine “Science for Human Security and Society” (2020-2021).