Academic school of thought as a growing point of academic knowledge

The paper is a conceptual one and reflects the result of one of the stages of the research of regional university development, in particular is structure as the system for knowledge generation and broadcasting. This paper is devoted to the university as the integration of formal and informal associations, which equally affects changes in the higher education and science system. The academic school is viewed not only as a social group united by scientific ties, but also as an economic phenomenon in the system of generating the intellectual capital of the university. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the academic school, what role, in addition to its traditional, it begins to play (or should play) in the changing scientific world. The paper deals with the role of the academic school in the formation of reputational mechanisms in the sphere of higher education, thus, its function as a form of coercion to conscientious publishing activity, in comparison with imperative orders of the university administration, is indicated. Comparative characteristics of academic schools with other scientific communities (single researcher, department, laboratory, research groups) are given. The role of the academic school in the socialization of the scientist is investigated, while both its positive and negative influences are indicated. Some other problems connected with the hypothesis that the scientific structure of the university should be viewed as an integrative form of formal and informal associations (as an academic school) which perform the task not only of a conscientious social elevator but reputation mechanism also because of its objective characteristics. The role of the leader of the academic school is discussed. The conclusion is concerned with an integrated approach to managing the scientific potential of a university.