This article represents a speech delivered by the author at the Seventh Congress of the Russian Union of Rectors. In his address, the author describes the current higher educational trend in Russia. He explains how higher education's orientation toward the state, its openness to all social classes, and its fundamental character are the principles that traditionally served as the basis for the construction and development of the system of higher education in Russia. However, the practice of teaching Russian students how to think in whole, fundamental categories and act in practice in accordance with the methods for obtaining fundamental knowledge is now in peril. As such, he contends that leading institutions of higher learning should be given additional support, and not by redistribution of funds. Furthermore, the author urges President Vladimir Putin to support the sectorial federal program "The Universities of Russia in the Twenty-First Century" in order to make science stronger and help further advance the higher education of Russia.