This paper analyses the use of digital technology-based education innovations in higher education. It demonstrated that extensive implementation of digital technologies in universities is the main factor conditioning the acceleration of innovative changes in educational processes, while digital technologies themselves become one of the key mechanisms for creating the competitive advantages between educational institutions in the market of educational services. An analysis of the application of digital technology-based education innovations in higher education enabled the authors to develop a layer model of assessing the readiness of universities to implement digital technologies, presented as a unity of three interrelated criteria determining the readiness of universities for the use of digital technologies in the education process: organisational and methodological, technological, and professional. The proposed model can serve as a foundation for the development of quantitative indicators describing the potential of universities in terms of the implementation of digital technologies and their successful use. The authors also share the experience of using digital technologies at the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service.