The relevance of studying the fragmentation of the university community is due to the need for a sociological analysis of the latent consequences of the implementation of the academic managerialism model in Russian higher education. In the new conditions of university management, based on the principles of stimulating competition, bureaucratization of control, formalization of the system of evaluation of academic work, rationalization of costs, an extreme form of its differentiation has emerged in the university community. It was called fragmentation. Academic managerialism creates an organizational and institutional context for this process. Instead of the cohesion and integration necessary to solve the new strategic tasks of university development, segmentation and polarization have emerged. The fragmentation of the university communities is a challenge to Russian higher education, because it deprives universities of important intangible resources, such as intragroup trust, solidarity, and reciprocity. The aim of the article is to substantiate the signs of fragmentation of the academic communities in Russian universities in the conditions of academic managerialism. The article reveals the concept of fragmentation of the university community, the perception of fragmentation by representatives of university communities, shows the correlation the fragmentation of the academic community with the implementation of a new model of educational management. The first question is based on a theoretical analysis of the philosophical and sociological conceptions of fragmentation, as well as research on the academic profession. The second and third questions are revealed using the empirical data of study (2020-2021, universities of Sverdlovsk region of the Russian Federation). The main method was an in-depth interview with scientific and pedagogical staff of universities (n = 20). Additionally, the author of the article used the method of secondary analysis of research data on university management and the academic communities in Russian universities.