Higher Education: Current State and Development Prospects

2018 marks the conventional starting point of the next Kondratiev cycle (the beginning of the sixth technological wave); at the same time, the potential of growth is determined in the first 15-20 years of a new wave. It is proved that normative per capita financing, and the priorities of higher education development considered in the context of the formed trend toward considerable reduction in state-funded places for Masters programs in fields that are key from the point of view of "breakthrough" into the sixth technological wave do not promote the solution for the task of steady staff attraction and retention for scientific and technological development of Russia. Modernization of higher education has to be based on legislative regulation of educational and research activities (regulation of maximum teaching loads as well as afternoon and evening standards), which assumes a change of approach to financing which would ensure: (a) basic financing of educational programs taking into account labor input of their implementation; (b) stimulation of creation of breakthrough social and technological innovations at higher education institutions. This paper sets out proposals to increase efficiency of financial interaction between higher education institutions and business for the purpose of resolving the contradiction between formation and financing of state orders for training by the state and lack of financial and substantial participation of business in this process.