Currently, special attention is paid to the development of digital technologies. In the context of the pandemic, the remote, distance, digital format of work has become top requested. Those events coincided with the general trend towards total digitalization of all spheres of life, including education. New concepts have emerged and taken hold - digital education and digital university. However, a mechanism for the development of a digital university has not yet been proposed. In the present study, an institutional approach was used to analyze the problems of the development of a digital university. The research scheme was used: institutions - motivation - control. The results of the empirical study (questionnaire and survey of university entries and its partners) made it possible to identify the existing contradictions between the participants in university activities and the external environment in terms of assessing aspects of the digital development of the university, to highlight the most effective institutions, conditions of positive motivation and control mechanisms for successful digital transformation of a university. The authors propose their own version of the concept for the development of a digital university, introducing as the core of it a new scientific concept - infrastructure logic. They lay a foundation for the principles of infrastructure logic, formation mechanisms and approaches to the use of indicators of digital development based on infrastructure logic, directions for improving the strategy of digital development of the university 4.0. The conclusions and recommendations formulated in this study can be used by other educational systems and universities.