The paper raises the question of the causes of the modern crisis of Russian university education, which is associated with its Westernization and commercialization, a departure from traditional Russian spiritual and moral values towards Eurocentrism. The negative impact of modern geopolitical and macroeconomic crises, processes of formalization, bureaucratization and deprofessionalization of management on the state of domestic university education is noted. The thesis is formulated that the implementation of the competence-based approach embedded in the system of modern higher education is not able to bring it out of a crisis situation and ensure the necessary increase in its quality. The article argues for the need to strengthen the moral principle in the university education system, associated with the formation of students’ sense of duty and social responsibility as key characteristics of the personality of a modern specialist.