The dynamics of several demographic indicators of Russia - child and teenage cohorts in 1970-2000, life expectancy in 1995-2000, migration flows among federal districts in the period between two censuses of 1989 and 2002 - are considered in the article. The author puts forward the hypothesis about the influence of these indicators on the level of education in narrow and broad senses - in educational institutions and the society as a whole. He estimates the perspectives of regional higher educational institutions under conditions of absence of plan distribution of graduates and the double cyclical fall in the number of high school graduates. The agenda for the development of a two-stage system of higher education corresponding with international integration processes is formulated.
