THIRD STREAM FUNDING – A SOURCE OF CONTINUOUS FUNDING FOR ROMANIAN UNIVERSITIES

Romanian Universities are at a point where Third Stream Activities (TSA) should become a permanent characteristics of the university’s funding landscape. However, emphasis should be made on Education and Research as main missions of a university and taking into account the importance of the Third Stream Activities due to their task of establishing relations between a university and the external environment, be it an economic, social or cultural one. This scientific paper aims at explaining the importance of these Third Stream Activities within a university’s financial management, on both a theoretical and practical approach and it is an attempt of encouraging university managers to invest more, in terms of effort and money as well, in Third Stream Activities. Evaluating, measuring and tracking a university’s Third Stream Activities must become one of the main concerns of a Romanian university’s administrative and educational management due to the direct effect that they have upon business environment and society as a whole and as sources of further incomes. Benchmarking the good practice in UE Universities as far as their incomes from Third Stream Activities is a must if Romanian Universities intend to become Universities of Excellence.