The article examines the tendencies and prospects for the development of universities wishing to occupy leading positions in world and national rankings that appeared in connection with digitalization, which has the most noticeable impact in the field of education since 2020. In this regard, the most urgent is to consider the identification of the main factors by which universities are assessed by leading international and national ratings, evolutionary and meaningful models of creating a world-class university, vectors for the development of digital transformation in relation to higher education, as well as analysis of existing ones, internship at world-class universities in the field of digitalization. The presented results of the study allow to draw conclusions about the attitude of representatives of educational organizations (students and teachers) and the business community of a number of cities in Russia, Poland and Italy to the ongoing digital transformation of universities and the formation of new world-class universities.