Global trends that require the use of information and communication, digital and innovative
technologies and approaches to learning require us in turn, to re-examine the current educational
paradigm. This article examines the modern paradigm and define the components for the
modernization of higher education. The study used a comparative analysis, methods of synthesis,
generalization and systematization of various scientific approaches, and a graphical method. It
considers models of higher education in foreign countries in the context of their adaptation in Russia
and examines characteristic features of traditional and modern higher education. Special attention
was paid to the role of higher education institutions in training specialists. These meet the current
requirements of the labor market, through their independence in strategy, courses, programs, as
well as the introduction of progressive forms of teaching methods and educational technologies.
The authors show that digitalization is deeply embedded into the administrative and managerial
environment of higher education. They identify problems and prospects for the introduction of
modern e-learning tools, individual educational trajectories, and distance learning technologies in
Russia. This provides the justification for updating the modern paradigm and reorienting it to the
components for the modernization of higher education (managerial, methodological, knowledge,
innovative, and institutional). The authors develop key foci and define strategic objectives for the
development of higher education which can inform educational practice in a modern university.