Our paper tackles the consideration of prerequisites and conditions of development of integration processes in the sphere of the higher education. Relevance of a subject is determined by the challenges of integration into the global educational environment facing Russia by means of the competition in the global educational market and export of Russian education. The purpose of the research is to research and classify the prerequisites and conditions of integration of the Russian system of higher education into global educational environment. The author generalized theoretical bases of internationalization, globalization and integration in education, having carried out the comparative analysis of a ratio of these terms. Historically and logically Internationalization precedes globalization, which is a result and the highest step of internationalization. Integration assumes development of the international cooperation in education at the state level and represents rapprochement of national educational systems. The author carried out a quantitative assessment of internationalization of the higher education by criterion of the academic mobility and demonstrated a low level of Russian university internationalization and poor involvement of Russian students into exchange processes. The author empirically proved that factors of a student's choice country and university influence on level of internationalization, and teaching language is one of the important factors determining foreign student's choice of a university and a country of study. The author concluded that the integration processes in the sphere of higher education are based on system-wide and specific (geopolitical, socio-economic and cultural-educational) prerequisites. They can be implemented through the creation of a system of appropriate conditions conducive to the development of integration processes; which, in turn, should be based on factors of student choice of the country, university and training program. Methods used by the author are deduction, quantitative and comparative-logical analysis.