摘要：The article is devoted to the assessment of the role of higher education in ensuring socio-economic sustainability of society development. Based on the analysis of international and Russian legal acts, it identifies the main indicators that allow analyzing the impact of higher education system on the implementation of sustainable development goals. Particular attention is paid to assessment of accessibility of education. Based on the analysis of statistical data, it is concluded that there is a problem of differentiation of regions and territories in terms of access to higher education due to uneven location of educational institutions, different density of students, low inter-regional mobility of population and disproportions in incomes of the population. Regional differentiation in access to higher education in Russia leads to a number of socio-economic problems that reduce the sustainability of regional development, including the outflow of young people and uncompensated labour migration.
