Abstract: The author focuses attention on the objective analysis of the sociocultural environment, as well as formulates the main characteristics and principles of sociocultural analysis. The article presents the scientific analysis of mass consciousness from the sociological perspective. The key indexes that affect people’s behavior and consciousness, namely the quality and level of life, level of education, culture, professional skills and knowledge, state and dynamics of health, are being determined. The author reveals the factors of formation of the extremist orientations and analyzes the sociocultural determinants of mass consciousness. The core methodological approaches towards the solution of the stated problem could be found in the context of socioeconomic reforms. The main conclusion consists in the analysis of mass consciousness, which manifests as a regulator of the mass forms of behavior, as well as in the explanation of a mechanism of emergence of the extremist views. The specificity of such analysis lies in the examination of society as a sociocultural system. The article formulates goals in the field of theoretical development of the issues of extremis within the practice of educational work.

Abstract: The era of global changes of the modern Russian society affect nearly all aspects of social life including such important areas as education - both general secondary and secondary vocational and higher professional education. The article is dedicated to multidimensional reorganization of educational institutions of higher professional education. Today higher education institutions including universities cover a huge scale of human activity; quickly obtained and used new knowledge and computer technology solve the problem of disconnection between education and training. The main methodological approaches to the solution of this problem can be found if we create a corporate University model that will allow higher education institutions to repond to the needs of the economy and to the changing requirements of the labour markets requiring highly skilled human resources. The main findings of the study is the position of the radical change of the status of the University in terms of contemporary socio-economic requirements. According to the author, today's University must comply with a number of parameters and characteristics which were not relevant for another two or three decades ago. These paramenters include environmental and process safety, new forms and methods of teaching, formation of a new corporate culture management, improvement of the quality of education and effective practice-oriented training of future specialists, citizens and personalities.