Introduction. Higher education systems at the present stage of development are facing new serious challenges. On the one hand, universities function as independent units, on the other, they are part of the regional system, they attract and share the attention of the stakeholders interested in the system (applicants, students, research and teaching staff, business structures, etc.). The purpose of the study is to assess the competitiveness of regional higher education systems through the formed system of indicators, as well as to draw conclusions about the degree of uniformity in the development of these networks. Methods. To assess the state of the higher education system in Russia, the author uses an indicative method of analysis, which makes it possible to determine the degree of compliance of the indicator values achieved by now with the criteria that meet the set requirements for the development of society. Scientific novelty of the research. The novelty of the research consists in forming a set of indicators, which makes it possible to draw conclusions about the competitiveness of regional systems and the degree of their development uniformity, as well as the number of universities in the regional system and their influence on the entire system, according to their uniform development relative to each other. Results. Following the results of diagnosing the regional higher education systems, the author identifies the regions-leaders and the regions-outsiders. The diagnostic results are compared with the data of international rankings. Conclusions. The conclusion states that the region with fewer but equally developing universities (for example, the Belgorod region or the Republic of Tatarstan) have higher indicators of competitiveness. On the contrary, regional higher education systems, represented by a large number of universities, but with unevenly developing performance indicators, are characterized as less competitive, i.e. the performance indicators of the leading university are leveled within the system as a whole.