In recent years, the architecture of the international higher education market has changed dramatically: there is a significant gap between world-class universities and other representatives of the higher education system. The article presents the results of a research on the problems of differentiation of universities in the international higher education markets. There is already a block of research on the problems of differentiation of universities present in the relevant literature; however, the authors of the article focuses on the importance of separating the approaches to setting strategic goals and objectives in the field of internationalization of different types of universities. The study carries out the differentiation of universities on the basis of cluster analysis according to original factors of internationalization: the study identifies the existence of 3 clusters of universities termed by the authors as "grossmeystery" (grandmasters), "mastery" (masters) and "kandidaty" (candidates). Depending on the cluster, universities vary in terms of the level of international competitiveness and the dynamics of the development of global interaction and cooperation. The authors also suggest strategic solutions for increasing internationalization in each cluster. This article is recommended for researchers in the field of higher education as well as administrative and managerial personnel of higher educational institutions. The current article is a continuation of the author's research, in which the factors of internationalization that became the basis for the clustering of universities were formulated.