Russian universities: challenges of the present

The article discusses the various aspects of promotions and barriers in the development of national university education. Global challenges, national priorities and regional responses have been identified. The main trends of the development of Russian universities have been highlighted: the desire to improve the image and status in the global and national rankings; the support of the most successful higher education institutions that succeeded in the procedure of wide-scale transformations and competitive selection in order to obtain the status of federal universities, research universities and mainstay-universities; the transition from the federal university control system to the multi-level regulations, the creation of conditions and tools for further development. The barriers for the transition to a new management paradigm of national higher education have been clarified. The change in classical trinity of value orientations of the university idea has been identified. The problems and potential of social education at modern Russian universities have been fully scrutinized. It is shown that the goal of future education at different levels of training will be the development of creative and combinatorial thinking. This is also important because the development of technology will lead to the loss of the need to train the majority of modern professions. The possibilities of social leadership of universitieshave been clarified. Also, the problems of transformative leadership are considered as ensuring the process of long-term and positive social changes.