This article reviews literature on changing environment and culture of European universities. First it considers: the pressures of globalisation and knowledge society on universities, the implication of emerging European higher education area, the demands confronting universities, the permeation of the public sector by market ideology and the restructuring the of relationship between universities and the state. Second, the article reviews developments at the university level: the meaning of the entrepreneurial culture, activities and structures specific to entrepreneurial universities as well as entrepreneurial university management. Finally, it addresses the issue of the contradictions between traditional academic values and the basic rules of the business world.