The university is considered as a “living” organism in a changing non-linear social space. This point of view opposes the mechanistic approach, where firms were considered as certain mechanisms. The understanding of social systems-environments as phenomena of the highest complexity, capable of selforganization and further increasing complexity, is applied. Universities are analyzed as established and stable entities that have a significant duration of their social life in a non-linear, constantly changing environment. The key factors that characterize the university as a living organism are considered: the persistence of existence in harmony with the environment; cohesion as the awareness of each team member’s involvement in the general organism; openness to innovation; caution in the use of funds. It is noted that universities as living companies are non-linear, influence themselves, make decisions in a changing environment, and thus change themselves, learn