We considered the formation and development of autodidactics in the Russian higher school at the beginning of the 20th century during the reform of the educational process, which introduced a subject system of education instead of the previously existing course. We revealed the role of L.I. Petrazhitsky in the development and implementation of the concept of autodidactics. We paid special attention to the organization of the educational process in autonomous universities. In humanitarian education, the personalist-axiological model of higher education is most effective. The traditional axiology of education determined the goals and methods of knowing scientific truth, while immersing students in the process of scientific research contributes to the development of their creative personalities. The need to be adequate to the level of achievements of the evolution of science involves the constant updating of the didactic complex: goals, content, forms and methods of learning. However, the customer of educational services forms a quasi-university focused on obtaining socio-cultural skills supposedly useful for the consumer of educational services. Such a model leads to the transformation of the scientific axiology of higher education and focuses on the criteria of utility and competence, which requires a different qualification, a different intellectual potential. There is a conflict of ambitendent innovative processes: autonomy opposes the authoritarian trend in education, while the higher school is technologizing the educational process aimed at forming narrow specialists.