Abstract
Constantly changing social-economic conditions are forcing Polish universities to change the orientation of their approach from focusing solely on educating to building relations with external stakeholders, the associated transfer of knowledge and continuous adaptation of offer to the needs of the labour market. An important element of this reorientation is establishing cooperation with entities which may be interested in exchange of information, access to latest research results, or which express the willingness to share knowledge in the process of teaching students. Actual cooperation between the sphere of science and economic practice is becoming a priority and the main determinant implicating the development of each of the sides. Taking the above into consideration, it becomes reasonable for universities to apply the concept of relational marketing. The assumptions of relational marketing perfectly respond to the new challenges ahead of scientific units. A university, assuming the role on an integrator should build a network of relations with entities from its environment such as: employees, opinion-forming units, schools and other universities, research-scientific units, business incubators, entities from the so-called third sector of the economy, media. These relations have to be based on trust, openness, readiness for changes, as well as on transfer of knowledge and technology, assuming common, long-term benefits for each of the involved sides.