Higher Education Reforms in BRICS Countries – the Westernization or the Search for their Own Way

There is a great deal of discussion about the current problems of higher education and ways to solve them in the BRICS countries, which, albeit in different ways, are currently in the process of transforming their higher education systems. Each of them, having an extensive, self-supporting system of higher education, considers itself independent from higher education systems of the other countries. At the same time, all of them look at the leading university countries in search of ideas for the development of higher education, research paradigms, etc. Having huge differences in their economic and political development, the BRICS countries also differ from each other in their academic traditions, contemporary realities, plans and scenarios for the further development of higher education. However, they are united by a common main problem – the necessity to achieve a balance between the desire to get world recognition, occupy a significant place in the global market of education and the need to preserve the national and regional culture of education, those traditions that form an integral part of the national identity. This can be done by creating an effective system of cooperation and mutual support within the BRICS organization.