Research Assessment Exercises (RAE), introduced in the UK by the Thatcher's government, are widely regarded as the prototype of all subsequent academic neoliberal reforms which took place in the university sector of European countries in 1980-2000s. Attaining greater research and financial efficiency of the academic sector was declared as the main goal of these reforms. Promotion of market-based instruments and emphasis on the open competition inside the university sector were basic policy principles which influenced the design of rAe. The study of RAE practices and consequences reported in this article has been conducted in the framework of a broader project, focusing on the systems of university management and their influence on academic careers. The basic data source of the study were (1) interviews with UK social scientists, who had significant experience of both academic and administrative work, and (2) official documents, produced in the course of RAE campaigns.

The budget funding for scientific research under Federal Target Program (FTP) "Research and development according to priority directions for Russian scientific and technological community development" for 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 periods are analyzed. The targets and tasks according FTP are analyzed, the problems setting logical sequence failure is shown. The new system of targets and tasks for both FTPs is proposed, which is aimed at increasing their efficiency.

University development is seen as the development of institutional forms of intelligence in society. Accordingly, the prospects of universities are associated with the phase transition and the formation of "cognitive society". The features of the cognitive society are considered: the significance, scope and forms of intelligence in various processes in the society and collective intelligence as key "productive force" of this society. The task for development of universities and the model variants of universities in the "cognitive world" are discussed. The possibility of new generation universities formation ("cognitive universities") is noted. Necessary modernization of Russian higher school is considered as its "conversion" that is a shift towards other goals, mission and functions in accordance with the economic and socio-cultural changes in society.

Diversification challenge of workplaces demands the non-stop strategic receiving of actual practical-oriented knowledge that forces all education system to change. Nowadays the education system shall be flexible and comprehensive, and all the modern computer equipment and e-learning technologies allow that. Owing to such technologies, not only students of higher education institutions receive actual knowledge, but also the adult working population has an opportunity to pass short-term and mobile training directly on a workplace relevantly to essential programs. Informatization of education, regular changes in knowledge acquisition approaches force universities not only to watch simply the changes, but to adapt themselves to new conditions to correspond to new environment as fast as possible in the educational world market.

During the last two centuries system of professional pedagogical education that was independent of universities was formed in Russia. The key elements of this system are to be found in pedagogical seminaries, institutes, specialized schools and more recently in colleges. However, the training of pedagogical staff in Russia has originally been one of the main challenges of a classical university. Nowadays higher professional pedagogical education proved to be ineffective and for that reason the process of its modernization was launched, mainly in the form of integration of teaching training institutions with classical universities. However, the inclusion of pedagogical institutes into classical universities without perfecting the university model of training teachers, appropriate standards and syllabi can make the solution of these problems more difficult. One of such problems is how to utilize the most effective aspects of university education, as well as the experience that was accumulated in specialized institutes and the traditions of psychological and pedagogical training. By definition universities can prepare more advanced pedagogical staff which meets the needs of the age. One of the requirements of the 21^st century is a teacher who has a broad outlook, a practice-oriented spectrum of professional, informational and common cultural competences. The elaboration and adaptation of the new model of training pedagogical staff is carried out in this particular direction. This process is taking place in the Tyumen State University where the four pedagogical institutes are integrated.

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.

The article proposes specific multi-period optimization models for supporting decision-making in selecting a project portfolio as part of the program for a university's strategic development. The allowance for risks is made under the portfolio theory by H. Markowitz using the scenario-based approach. For the target function the author uses a general per-unit utility function whose arguments are levels of attainment of the strategic objectives as a result of implementing the project according to periods with allowance for the significance of objectives and the size of present expenditures on the project, as well as the overall volume of necessary resources. It is expected that the utility of the project will depend on the way increases in the levels of attaining strategic objectives unfold across the periods, while different objectives would preferably require a different pace of increase in their levels. It is also expected that different structures for investing resources across periods will be distinguished in preference. The university's corporate social responsibility is brought out when objectives are set inclusive of the interests of all stakeholders. The article shows an example of applying the proposed models.

In the article the problem of integration of universities into regional communities is analyzed. On the basis of data of the state statistics, sociological researches the author defines key risks of such integration, forms contours of the scoring card which allows to predict efficiency of process of scientific, educational, social integration of small regional higher education institutions and local communities.

The necessity of broadening the existing theoretical and applied approaches to the diagnosis of the competitiveness of graduates is justified. A method of assessment is proposed based on the principles of actualization of professional capacity and evaluation of the impact of resource support of its formation in a particular labor market. Significant factors are identified and the strength of their connection with the resulting value - the level of competitiveness in different types of fixing the graduate on the market is determined.

The article presents the results of sociological studies which have been carried out among the students of nine higher educational institutions in Kemerovo Region and which reflect the students' attitude to their educational institutions and the conditions of training there. The students show rather a high level of training satisfaction in the higher educational institutions but they are not quite confident in their successful career placement with the specialization they are being trained. At the same time, certain real conditions of training are appraised by the students lower than their importance. It calls for drawing the attention of the administrators of the regional higher educational institutions to the respective aspects of educational process management.

The article is devoted to the development of methods for determination of accessibility of higher education in the region among universities that implement development programs, funded by the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation. This methodology is based on the analysis of indicators developed by the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation to assess the effectiveness of development programs implemented by institutions. In the article the analysis of accessibility of higher education in the region in accordance with the developed methodology is conducted.