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The educational system is one of the important factors in creating and developing the competitive forces of a country. The higher education provides the socio-economic environment with two basic services: teaching and research. The duality marks an entire history for higher education, but nowadays a new dilemma has emerged: economic efficiency (the university as an economic provider of services) versus academic competitiveness (the university as a research forum). In addition, a new challenge seems to be altering the future of higher education, these stemming from the massive increase in the demand for university teaching services: elite higher education, thus efficient, highly competitive academically (competitiveness), or mass higher education, adapted to the demand, with the primary role of harnessing knowledge though professional training (effectiveness).

Education–a factor of competitiveness?