Gerontocracy and career in university

This article is of a conceptual type and represents the result of one of the stages of research concentrated on the development of regional university as an active participant of regional economic system and specific features of human resources management at higher educational institutions. The article represents conceptual approach to the problem of ageing in the university management system and analyses not only radical reflection of ageing but also attempts at preserving continuity of generations in academic sphere. The article looks into generation problem and attempts to under-stand whether gerontocracy is a cause or a consequence of the situation existing in higher education and what can be done about it. The reasons behind writing the article is that despite seemingly evident solution - favouring younger staff members, in-depth study of the topic demonstrates that solution to this problem should be more delicate than just enrolling young specialists. As the article shows the reason for that is the specific character of academic community and peculiar features of career trajectories in higher education. The research identifies existing career trajectories in higher education and analyses different generation - related factors influencing their effective implementation (including entrepreneurial career, a new career trajectory for national universities). Attention is paid to mentorship which fully represents specific traits of academic community with necessary generation continuity. Among the article outcomes there is a set of suggested gerontocracy overcoming mechanisms such as development of reputation mechanisms; development and improvement of mentorship mechanism which should be viewed as the development of the system of older generation involvement into the life of the university; regulation of age limitations for all administrative positions in the higher education system. Limitations for research process can be as follows: career trajectories are seldom separated from each other and one trajectory usually dominates. Nevertheless managerial perversions (such as gerontocracy) in one of the career trajectories can have direct influence on efficacy of another trajectory, particularly in the case of administrative positions (administrator-researcher). Understanding specific features of multiple career trajectories and danger of managerial perversions should be considered in university staff policy as well as in personnel enrollment and development programs that should be aimed both at social elevation mobilization for younger specialists and preservation of university traditions and cultural environment which is impossible without mentorship system development. The article analyses career trajectories at the university with the reflection of academic community peculiarities. The article emphasises negative consequences of managing university setting limitations for young talanted generation. Such things as dissemination of rating stipends and corporate grants among "insiders", lobbying "insiders'" projects within the framework of federal and regional programs lead to factual inefficacy of such events.