Currently, changes in higher education are conceptualized as a multifaceted crisis. We consider that the crisis is civilizational at the bottom and is connected with the "phase shift" (the transition from industrial to post-industrial way of social existence) so all developed countries experience it with varying degrees of acuteness.

Corporate culture in modern organizations is mediate management tool; it acts through influence on interests, goals and activity manners of collectives and individual members and complements directive management techniques appreciably. Inadequate corporate culture can block "development impulses" and create risks for the very existence of organization. Universities are currently facing necessity to develop the complex organizational culture, combining both traditional academic culture of "professionals' free association" and a culture of highly productive "think tanks".The article presents a systemic view to university corporate culture, which includes: corporate culture functions, corporate culture levels hierarchy and the idea of complex organization' corporate culture as a "topic". Topic (toposes) is a "space" in which "places" ("territories") are allocated with specific values, principles, standards, thinking and action formats for each territory and boundaries and transitions between these territories are built. In terms of organizational culture these are the places in which "culture of role", "culture of task", "culture of personality" are actualized. Such complexity of organizational culture is important for university as an educational organization; it is a resource for the students to master the activity and behavior patterns that is typical for different organizational cultures and thereby for high-level professionals' formation. The article also presents scheme of stepwise formation of corporate culture in "from precedent to tradition" logic; typical problems of corporate culture formation or development are interpreted in terms of this scheme.Keywords: corporate culture of university; corporate culture as a system; organization of corporate culture as topic (toposes); organizational development; development management; corporate culture formation.