The modern market relations open provide new opportunities of development for higher educational institutions, however the majority of universities aren't ready for effective and independent business management yet. At the turn of the 21st century many educational institutions faced such problems as scarcity of federal financing, fundamental changes in demand for educational services, decrease of the requirements to educational services and qualification of their consumers, and also lack of necessary knowledge and experience to manage universities in new conditions. The growing level of competitive struggle between educational institutions added complexity to the situation that led to a disproportion in training of personnel for regional economy. That's why the successful functioning of modern higher educational institutions should considerably depend on their fast and easily adaptation to constantly changing external environment. In our opinion the most suitable method that allows to judge on the efficiency of higher education institutions is rating assessment. Within the research we offer to create a rating of higher education institutions of Central Federal District using the integrated indicator that allows to consider the heterogeneity of the estimated criteria. The used technique allowed to determine 7 cluster groups depending on the specifics of development of higher education institution (leaders, diversifiers, accumulators of scientific research, the international orientation, accumulators of financial resources and conservatives). In article conclusions that are made in the article show that the revealed disproportion in development of higher education institutions has an influence on the processes of forming and development of professional and competent personnel for the region and as a result on the level of social and economic development.