The article presents the common causes (external and internal factors) for reforming the national higher education, which actively began after the proclamation of the independence of Ukraine. Strategies of state policy in the sphere of education are presented. They are aimed at overcoming the crisis of the previous socialist education system, ensuring the state's needs for highly qualified specialists and scientific research, promoting development of the society through the establishing a competitive human capital. Ways and the complexity of formation and development of the national high school during the last decade of the XX–XXI centuries of the first decade are researched. Promising development vectors in the context of European integration, socially-oriented market economy and student centered learning are highlighted.