The ongoing social changes taking place on a global scale have made universities respond to these new challenges by offering new study programmes, implementing modifications of study plans, taking up new research focus as well as by broadening the offer of adult education. These changes necessarily require modifications in terms of the structure and the style of management in university departments and institutes representing the most elementary university structure. In this article, a methodological analysis of university environment has been carried out as well as the identification of problems linked with the traditional styles of the central European university organization and management. Then follows the categorization of four styles of university management as they are recognized these days and subsequently the possibility of transforming the institutions of higher education into virtual universities (network universities) has been considered. Virtual (network) universities are most commonly associated with the styles of management encountered in enterprises and they are believed to be able to ensure the requirements as for the education of population in the environment of global society.