Cultural environment features of a higher educational institution

The purpose of the study is to identify the cultural environment features of a higher educational institution and substantiate the need for the purposeful use of its potential to solve tasks faced by Russian higher education nowadays. The research describes the basic elements of cultural environment such as values, activities, communication, and objects of culture particularly reflected in a Russian higher school. The paper deals with the values of today’s higher education declared in international and national documents, modern widespread university models, the components of the educational process related to e-learning and distance learning technology. The author draws attention to the aspects and means of communication, the importance of social and cultural information for the development of scientific, spiritual and moral, other potential of the university community. The study discusses the objects of culture (libraries, centers of excellence, in-house publications, museums) available at every university and aimed at raising the cultural level of actors in education.