An article devoted to the main aspects of the cooperation between universities and business. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the tools of cooperation of domestic universities and business structures and to develop a model of cooperation between them on the terms of cooperation and collaboration. The main barriers to the cooperation of universities and business structures have been identified. A comparison of the relationship between universities and business structures in Ukraine and abroad. The volume of scientific works performed by scientific organizations in Ukraine and the total volume of expenditures for research and scientific and technical developments in 2018 by funding sources are analyzed. In order to determine further areas of development of partnership between businesses and universities, a SWOT analysis was conducted. This method revealed the following strengths in the interaction between the university and business: the readiness of universities to interact; students' desire to take part in joint projects; a high competitive level of higher education and enterprises; a high degree of achievement of the tasks in the system relationships; a high degree of fulfillment of the partner's obligations. Weaknesses of such cooperation were also revealed: high level of bureaucracy in universities; different models of communication in universities and enterprises; different motivation in universities and companies’ activities; inconsistency of curricula with modern business conditions; insufficient financial resources for interaction with universities or unwillingness to spend them on such interaction, etc. On the basis of the conducted research, the model of cooperation of university and business is offered. This model is based on a system of complementary stages: attracting companies to jointly develop curricula, which will take into account the requirements of employers for graduates. This guarantee graduates successful employment in the future; tracking by universities of new technologies and new trends in relevant areas of interest to employers; increasing the mobility of scientists to gain useful experience; development of a dialogue between universities and employers to increase mutual trust, improve mutual understanding when formulating goals, etc