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The article examines current trends in the development of the national models of higher education in Russia and European countries. The paper reveals the key problems of their functioning in the context of the processes of globalization, standardization, and integration into the pan-European and global educational space. These processes are described through the prism of the national interests of the states. Emerging from the comparative description, content presentation and qualitative analysis, the article assesses the level of development of the national models of higher education, i.e., Russian, European and American. This allowed identifying key similarities, as well as the most important differences, which mainly stem from the difference in the state regulation of national educational systems. It is the role of the state that is leading in the formation of national educational systems and the creation of high-quality models of higher education. The state is also responsible for the transformation and adaptation of these models. The models target providing the national and world labor market with highly professional human resources. Based on the comparative aspects outlined in the article, as well as on the qualitative analysis data, the authors have come to the following main conclusions regarding the trends and prospects for the development of the Russian higher education sector: a) Firstly, the Russian model of higher education was built during an accelerated transition from a one-level to a multilevel education. The result of this shift is the labor market disbalance, which nowadays does not allow the formation of the adequate perception of specialists holding a "bachelor's degree" which is unfamiliar and obscure to many employers; b) Secondly, the Russian educational system, and the higher education model, replicate the Western European and American approaches without considering the realities of the national educational market and the labor market. Therefore, the high proportion of the population with higher education cannot provide the necessary socio-economic development potential of the country; c) Thirdly, the reform of the Russian model of higher education should continue but not in terms of accelerating the processes of its integration into the world educational system. There is much evidence that the correct direction lies within the domain of creating incentives and conditions that will ensure the training of highly skilled professionals correlating with the market demand.

Europe is undergoing the strongest migration crisis that in terms of its importance can be compared with the migration crisis caused by the Second World War. This article researches the coherence of "catastrophic" hypothesis related to the current migration crisis in Europe, and considers the risks and consequences of this crisis for the social and economic development of the European region. The materials stated in the article enable the authors to make the following conclusions: Migration as an objective phenomenon that comes with globalization phenomena will always maintain its historical focus from the lagging regions of the world in terms of economic and social development to more developed and democratically free regions, The current migration crisis in Europe has been caused by an abrupt increase in the migrants' inflow to the region (2-5 times during 2015 as compared to 2014), as well as by the lack of coordination in the actions of representatives of the executive power of European countries, including the lack of distinct and efficient measures aiming at regulating the abruptly increased migration inflow, The "catastrophic" scenarios of the current migration crisis based on historical parallels (for example, the fall of the Western Roman Imperia and the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation) offered in some scientific and publicist articles have insufficiently objective grounds, Countries of Europe (and including the European Union) must take into account and forecast probable risks that will come with the current migration crisis (social and political instability that will cause destructive phenomena in economy), and The European region may extract potential profits from the migration crisis, successively pursuing the policy of securitization, integration and assimilation of migrants and herewith finding the balance between the efficient tolerance to newcomers and the required level of safety for the indigenous population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]