DOES A SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION EXIST IN RUSSIA?

The article deals with the problem of transition from the mechanistic to the organic system of higher education. Differences between the two types of higher education systems are shown. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the necessity and possibility to create a holistic system of higher education in the macroregion (federal district) as a point of growth of the higher education system in Russia. The object of research is the sphere of higher education in Russia and in the Urals macroregion (Ural Federal District). The subject is the breaches and interactions between the elements of the higher education system. The research hypothesis consisted in the assumption that the way to create it could be the transition to the nonlinear development of higher education in the macroregion. Theoretical analysis in the article is connected to the consideration of data of a large empirical study of higher education, first implemented on the scale of the whole federal district (UFD). The results show that the prerequisites for transition to nonlinear development of higher education are formed in it by: forming interuniversity network interaction; transformation of the university management system; changes in the trajectories of academic mobility from external (foreign) to internal (macroregional); active cooperation of universities with stakeholders; mastering of new formats of higher education; strengthening the innovativeness of the educational and research process; new principles for the interaction of educational communities in universities, the region and the macroregion; elaboration of normative regulation of network interaction and non-linear education in universities. The authors conclude that this is the way of forming an organic holistic system of higher education in the macroregion, this experience might be transfered to other macroregions.