The development of Russian universities in the context of national high school institutional crisis

The current state of higher education in Russia is estimated. With the use of methodological models by M. Furman and P. Sorokin it's proved that the higher education in contemporary Russia is experiencing institutional crisis, its depth and main characteristics are defined. As our analysis reveals, the crisis has not reached its peak, but is manifested in the redistribution of the usual institutional functions of universities. Crisis differentiates universities in Russia, highlighting among them several reference groups, organizational changes in which can be regarded as guidelines for the development of the national higher education.