Higher Education System as a Driver of the Country’s Innovative Development

In modern economic conditions, the study of issues of stimulating the country’s innovative development at the macroeconomic level is a top priority task for scientists around the world. The article presents the results of studying the influence of mass character, internationalization and state financing of higher education over the parameters of the country’s innovative development. The correlation analysis allowed us to scientifically prove that today these characteristics of the higher education system determine the innovative development of countries in general. The first part of the article, after an analytical review of the literature, distinguishes the characteristics of the higher education system, which, according to the authors’ suggestion, have a significant impact on the innovative development of the country (mass character, internationalization, state funding). The second part describes the research methodology and formulates working hypotheses. The third and the fourth parts present the results of the study and its conclusion, correspondingly. The study comes to be theoretically essential, as it identifies the influence of certain characteristics of the higher education system (mass character, internationalization and the financing model) over some parameters of innovative development, in particular, over the share of a high-tech export in total industrial exports and over the share of research and development costs in GDP. The results can provide a basis for scientists in organizing and conducting further research on identifying resources for innovative development at the macroeconomic level. Practically this study gives a possibility of using the results obtained in developing strategic plans and development programs both at the university level and at the level of regions, and even countries.