The professorial ethos transformation can be understood only taking into account the general context of the changes in which the professor is immersed together with the higher education system. Such a civilization context is digitalization, which gives rise to very mixed consequences: technological, anthropological, social. These consequences nudge to the search for a new positioning of Russian universities as real generators of real knowledge and skills. The result of this can be the real ethos of the professor as a sought-after authoritative specialist, a moral leader who embodies the scientific knowledge authority.