Most prior research on academic entrepreneurship focuses on the interplay between university research and technology transfer activities in the form of joint research, spinoffs, licencing and patenting. Yet questions still remain with respect to the role of academic entrepreneurship in education and learning. Lifelong learning has been developing to one of the top priorities for many higher education institutions, with a greater emphasis on developing transversal skills in students, including entrepreneurship. An increasingly adopted approach to developing transversal skills through education is through problem‐based learning (PBL) which shifts the focus from teacher‐driven education to student‐centred learning involving active participation of learners. By taking the students’ perspective, this article presents the effects of PBL in the context of university‐business cooperation (UBC) on the development of student's transversal skills. According to our findings, UBC‐based PBL has an effect on the interpersonal skills of students, such as teamwork and communication, and is a promising approach with regard to entrepreneurship education and paving the way for long‐term and more intense UBC activities.

SummaryThe EU's growth strategy for the coming decade (recorded and defined by Horizon2020) and the higher education modernisation agenda force all European countries to establish a more connected and better functioning relationship between the three most important players government, business and higher education institutions (HEI's) in order to increase employment, productivity and social cohesion.This article explores the development of University-Business Cooperation (UBC) both in Poland and in Germany, shining a spotlight on the various factors influencing UBC, as well as providing a comparison of the two countries. The focus lays on a Polish-German comparison i.e. the compared analyses of the state of UBC in Germany and Poland from the perspective of HEI managers and researchers.Applying a UBC-ecosystem of different factors and action levels (http://ub-cooperation.eu/pdf/ UBCECO.pdf) the major differences of both countries are identified, addressed and commented to offer opportunities for improvements.

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