The main foreign integration models of the higher education institution and the regional system in terms of knowledge economy

This article analyzes the main Western models of integration of higher education institutions and regional economic system in the modern knowledge economy. The article considers elitist and diffuse models of relations between universities and regional systems allocated by B. Morgan. The elitist model characterized traditional industrial economy, while today the economy is transformed into a knowledge economy, in which competitive advantage is not simply a consequence of high-tech knowledge, but stems from a combination of different types of knowledge: high-tech, technological, managerial, organizational, knowledge of markets, etc. In this regard, universities should become players of the multipolar system of knowledge instead of retaining their hierarchical position in the top of the pyramid of knowledge. To describe the new position of the university, Western scholars (Morgan) introduced the "diffuse" model in which institutions of higher education must play a key role in the formation of "social capital" of the region and promote social integration by providing greater access to knowledge for representatives of lower socioeconomic groups. Under these conditions, a methodologically important step is to create a relevant paradigm for understanding the process of knowledge production and the role of the university in the process. In order to determine the contribution of the university in the process of regional economic development, it is necessary to understand the real mechanisms of the processes of creation and transfer of knowledge. Elitist and diffuse models of university and regional system relations are based on two different models of knowledge creation set by a British researcher Michael Gibson. Gibbons believes that the traditional model of knowledge creation is linked to the disciplinary structure of science, dominant in the management and organization of today's universities. A new model must replace it, a model characterized by interdisciplinary, heterogeneity, organizational diversity. The model is to be socially responsible and reflective and supposes a greater quality control system. Gibbons calls such a model of creation and transmission of knowledge "socially widespread system of knowledge creation" which demonstrates the properties of a self-organizing system, where the density of communication is increasing rapidly. Such a system defines the fundamental changes both in terms of the possible places of knowledge creation, and from the point of view of their level of interaction. The article notes that the new model defines the place of the university in regional development and is able to return its role of a major player in the system of knowledge economy.

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