The article confirms that the leading world-class universities focus special attention on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in their educational and research activities. Multifunctional and effective use of ICT is perceived by the world-class universities as a major factor which provides their global competitiveness. The leading Russian universities in their development programs also pay special attention to this problem. The article presents an attempt to analyze, think over and single out the principal qualities of the world-class leading universities in terms of the ICT use in education and the peculiar features of their educational systems. The J. Salmi1 model is used as the analyses' basis which describes the interrelation of the factors providing global competitiveness and successful functioning of the leading world-class universities. The conclusion is that the key factors of provision for the university competitiveness in terms of strategic development are the modern information and communication technologies as well as the educational resources created with the use of the ICT and the innovational education system answering the demands of the digital future.