Under current conditions, the role played by scientific knowledge in all spheres of public life is rising substantially, and more and more attention is being paid to problems of the development and modernization of the Academy of Sciences. Not long ago, for example, there was wide response to the findings of a special study by S. Belanovskii on ways to reform academic science in Russia. At the same time, new scientific knowledge is being generated in institutions of higher learning as well, institutions that serve as a vital sector of science and progress. When it comes to problems of scientific research that must be dealt with by college and university instructors there have not been many special studies and not enough is being discussed and written about them. In this article, the author focuses specifically on these problems and notes the topics that can serve to diagnose the current state of scientific research in higher education. In the process, he draws primarily on generalized materials from Internet discussions and personal experience.