This article is devoted to solving the problem of systematizing the existing concepts of innovation in higher education, reflecting the new vision of the university by modern scientists. The author studied the content and conducted a comparative analysis of various concepts relating to the emergence of the future image of the University. First of all, these are the works of the classics of post-industrialism, who defined science and education as a new industry within the emerging knowledge economy and noted the need to form, in this regard, a new type of University. Important potential for understanding the role and place of the University, as well as to get an idea of its supposed (futuristic) model in the new realities have the concepts of innovatization of higher education, the analysis of which is given most of the article. Under the concepts of innovatization of higher education in the article we understand the concept of modern scientists who consider the transformation of the traditional University in its innovative model that meets the needs of the economy and society focused on innovation. The concepts of innovatization are also divided into several types, grouped according to the relevant features, which suggests the possibility of transition to the innovative model of the University in different ways.

The article relates to the formation of a methodology of nonlinearity for nonlinear cognition of the spatial expansion of higher education in the innovation sphere, which manifests itself as the implementation of its innovative activities and the spread of innovations not only inside, but also outside its own national states. This trend of embedding higher education in the global innovation process has a stable and long-lasting character, due to its all-round innovatization and globalization.The article offers a rationale of the relevance and presentation of the methodology of nonlinearity as the most effective tool for understanding the expansion of the innovation space of higher education and its integration into the worldwide innovation process. The proposed methodology of nonlinear research is opposed to the so-called linear logic, a linear method often used in economics that considers objects and phenomena with predictable behavior and is not able to give a complete picture of the development of open nonequilibrium systems. The methodology of nonlinearity includes the principles of the theory of systems self-organization and the theory of evolutionary economics. It allows combining both stationary and dynamic components of the nonlinear process under study in one model, revealing the nature of changes in both spatial and temporal properties accompanying the modification of higher education integrated into the global innovation space.The study’s results are presented as the parameters of the nonlinearity of the university innovation space expansion. Theirs disclosed using a nonlinear methodology. There are: the openness of higher education to the import-export of information, energy and material flows; the state of instability, disequilibrium under the influence of external and internal factors; updating the structure through self-organization, leading to the replacement of obsolete parts of the system with new ones; the ability to make qualitative leaps, once at the bifurcation points.The article offers a rationale of the relevance and presentation of the methodology of nonlinearity as the most effective tool for understanding the expansion of the innovation space of higher education and its integration into the worldwide innovation process. The proposed methodology of nonlinear research is opposed to the so-called linear logic, a linear method often used in economics that considers objects and phenomena with predictable behavior and is not able to give a complete picture of the development of open nonequilibrium systems.The methodology of nonlinearity includes the principles of the theory of systems self-organization and the theory of evolutionary economics. It allows combining both stationary and dynamic components of the nonlinear process under study in one model, revealing the nature of changes in both spatial and temporal properties accompanying the modification of higher education integrated into the global innovation space.The study’s results are presented as the parameters of the nonlinearity of the university innovation space expansion. Theirs disclosed using a nonlinear methodology. There are: the openness of higher education to the import-export of information, energy and material flows; the state of instability, disequilibrium under the influence of external and internal factors; updating the structure through self-organization, leading to the replacement of obsolete parts of the system with new ones; the ability to make qualitative leaps, once at the bifurcation points.

The article purpose was to determine the place of modern higher education in the structure of the global innovative space, considering the preservation of itself as a national identification center, which required understanding and formalization of its new mission for conditions of high geo-economic instability caused by the processes of deglobalization in the world economy.As a research methodology, the work uses a nonlinear method synthesizing systemic and evolutionary approaches. This allows, on the one hand, to determine the place of higher education in the structure of the global innovation space. On the other hand, to reflect the qualitative, evolutionary transformations taking place in it against the background of increasing destabilization within this broader system, respectively, to show the evolution the missions of the higher school under the influence of the changes that have arisen.An important result of the research was the definition of a new mission of the higher school, which consists not only in its acquisition of subjectivity in the creation and promotion of innovations at the global level, but also in its formation as a sovereign (independent) center of national identity with a certain share of its own supranational influence on the world innovation space, including in terms of eliminating the global innovation separation.