MODERNIZATION OF flagship UNIVERSITIES OF RUSSIA IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
Background . At the present time, in Russian system of higher education, prerequisites are being created for the intensification of the regional economic development arising from the formation of a network of flagship regional universities. The transformation of universities into flagship universities of the regions and the centers of their innovative, technological and social development requires the development of a theoretical and methodological basis for the processes of regional development. The article discusses the issues of modernization of flagship universities, reflected in their development programs. Materials and methods . It has been hypothesized that the development of flagship universities will adequately meet the regional agenda while ensuring the sustainable development of both the university and the region as a whole. The focus of flagship universities on solving problems of sustainable regional development makes it expedient to study expert-analytical and other information that can become the basis for the following forms of analytical activity. Research methods: system analysis, factor analysis, correlation and regression analysis, and others. Results and conclusions . The article shows that the development of flagship universities becomes possible with a more detailed study of the components of the socio-economic potential of the regions and implementation of strategic projects of flagship universities aimed at developing the regional natural resource potential, taking into account the effects of university transformation into innovation, technological and social development centers. The authors proposed an approach to substantiate the content of measures to modernize the activities of flagship universities. Of practical interest is the method of identifying groups of regions, according to the rank of the natural resource potential as a component of rating of the regions’ investment attractiveness, taking into account its correlation with the ranks of innovative, labor and production potentials.