This article was written after the authors visited a number of leading American universities, during which they met their American counterparts, experts in the economics and sociology of education. The organization of the education systems of Russia and the US were compared and contrasted during discussions on academic culture and career, incentives for academic staff and policies for supporting university research. The analysis is centered on the incentives of those who work in the education system. These incentives are the product of the rules or conventions of the education system. Particular attention is paid to the specifics of how curricula are planned in Russian universities (in the context of forming Masters programs, the fixedness of education trajectories, etc), the distance of staff in Russian colleges from modern teaching and research standards, as well as the mechanisms and norms of academic management.