Abstract. The purpose of the article is to determine the major regularities and peculiarities of the educational programmes (EP) development in Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs) in the context of the implementation of the principles of smart specialization strategy (SSS) and the formation of a number of scientific recommendations for improving the EP. Scientific methods of induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, comparison have been used. The key regularities of the EP development in Ukrainian HEIs such as activation of interaction and development of cooperation between local/regional authorities, business, science and education are determined. The factors of improving the quality of EP in HEIs have been substantiated, such as interaction with regional innovative clusters, taking into account the main principles of the SSS and the introduction of elements of socially oriented training. The structural and logical framework for the development of EP for HEIs in the context of the SSS has been worked out, which takes into account the collaboration between central and local/regional authorities, HEIs and its EP, and regional innovation clusters. It is substantiated that the development of innovative clusters in the Ukrainian regions based on the formation of scientific, research and technological parks will contribute to the successful development of HEIs in view of the formation of creative approaches to their cooperation with the main stakeholders. From the point of view of the SSS, it is determined that in this process it is important to establish effective communications with all participants in the educational process in order to jointly solve social, economic and environmental problems at the regional level. It has been found out that the participation of HEIs in regional innovation clusters will allow them to receive new incentives and opportunities to achieve such major missions as educational, scientific and social development. The system of interrelations between the participants of such a cluster has been outlined, which will contribute to the modernization of the structure and quality of the EP, their adaptation to modern market requirements, the transformation of HEIs and research institutes into factors of innovative business development, accumulation of human capital and attraction of investments. Key words: an education programme, smart specialization, a mission of higher education institutions, a socially oriented training, clusters.