The paper analyses the state of higher education in contemporary Russia. Author draws attention to efforts of government to substitute the problem of rasing quality of education by the issue of lowering numbers of students, a step with less minuses than pluses. Desire to limit citizens’ access to education might be seen as an attempt at their well-being, quantity and quality of life, thus leading to growing social tension. Indices of Universities effectiveness monitoring do not match with the declared aim of raising quality of education and do not take into consideration branch, economic and other specifics of Universities. Among allegedly ineffective Universities there are some recognized leaders. Pyramid of higher education built on bureaucratic criteria stratifies Universities in Russia, while course at decreasing their numbers deprives citizens of their right at accessible education. Among all functions of the state administration only one did get hypertrophied development – that of control. Quantity of required documents keeps growing. While number of teachers decrease, numbers of administrators grows both in governing structures and in institutions of higher learning.