The need to systematize and formalize soft skills in curricula makes the study relevant. This becomes especially important in the context of a fundamental reform of the national education system in Russia. The reliance on the world's best educational practices will allow creating effective training programs in order to increase the demand for university graduates. In the article the research conducted to assess the satisfaction of university students (on the example of MGIMO MFA of Russia) with the development of soft skills during the mastering of academic disciplines is presented. At the first stage of the research, scientific articles in which the authors classify soft skills were selected and analyzed, and a list of the most professionally significant soft skills was compiled and used as a basis for the developed questionnaire. At the second stage, a survey of students was conducted. There were 135 students who participated in the survey. It was found out that a high percentage of the respondents find soft skills important for their future career. However, according to the students, insufficient attention is paid to the development of soft skills in the process of higher education, so young people mostly do not associate their mastery of certain skills with their studies at university. Despite the fact that in recent years researchers have paid attention to the study of soft skills, university curricula do not regulate the improvement of skills. The missing formalization of soft skills in university curricula creates obstacles for their development in the process of studying at the university. This study confirms the relevance of updating the curriculum and educational framework

This article focuses on the topic of society digitalization in terms of the negative impact of innovative technologies on the value and citizens’ cognitive potential. Authors pay special attention to the problems facing the system of higher education. The authors’ argumentation is supported by data analysis of publications from well-known websites (including the Times Higher Education, University World News, and All-Russian Internet Pedagogical Council), as well as interviews with students, university staff and personal observations. The survey has shown that the functioning of universities today is complicated by the phenomena known in modern science as functional illiteracy, or ‘digital dementia’ aggressive disinformation. The development and improvement of methods using by society and academic community aimed at enhancing the information content quality that affects intellectual capital of citizens and intensify the efforts of education subjects in the process of eliminating the consequences of the global bureaucratic structures infringement of academic rights and freedoms. Keywords: digitalization of education, Universities, digital dementia, value and cognitive potential of citizens, aggressive disinformation