An acute problem of Russian higher education is the growing educational failure of students. It manifests itself in different areas: when students lack educational motivation, poorly prepare for their studies, show low academic performance, lack of professional orientation and professional self-determination and lack of interest in the research field. One of the reasons for educational failure in universities is the lack of attention paid to this problem by the university administration. The purpose of the article is to show the role of university management in overcoming student educational failure. The research objectives were: 1) to identity the reasons why university management pays little attention to the problem of student educational failure; 2) to determine the main directions of the university management to overcome educational failure; 3) to characterize the principles of management activities aimed at solving the problem of educational failure. The main methods of the empirical research were the following: 1) secondary analysis of data retrieved from a questionnaire conducted at 7 universities in the Ural Federal district in 2019; 2) in-depth semi-formal interviews of experts and managers of Russian universities (2020); 3) analysis of statistical data on higher education in Russia (2016-2019). The authors give the following research results: 1. The interpretation of students' educational failure. 2. The main signs and causes of educational failure. 3. The reasons for the low interest of the university administration in the problem. 4. The required areas of work for university management with such students. As a conclusion the authors formulate the main principles of university management in working with unsuccessful students. They are equal attention to ah students- successful and unsuccessful; orientation of scientific and pedagogical staff to the importance of this type of work; systematic approach to solving the problem of educational failure, and others. According to the authors, working with unsuccessful students should be a special strategy for the university management.