The research aims to identify the main problems of regulating the activities of university teachers and propose directions for their resolution through the prism of the smart regulation concept. The authors analyze the problems of regulating higher education in the Russian Federation. A university should now combine such areas as education, research, and commercialization of knowledge and technology, which is reflected in the University 3.0 concept. Universities are becoming important social institutions and centers of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that apply innovative teaching methods, conduct relevant scientific research, forecast economic changes, provide a link to the business community, and introduce scientific developments. The main force capable of realizing this concept is the faculty of higher education institutions. Effective legal mechanisms of regulation of labor relations between universities and teachers to reveal the innovative potential of the teaching staff and stimulate scientific activity can be based only on the balance of interests of the employee and the employer. Such a balance can be created by using the achievements of the smart regulation concept, which implies achieving maximum effect by minimum means. In higher education, contemporary lawmaking technologies should be applied to find the optimal regulatory model. Such technologies include lawmaking experiments for preliminary testing of new solutions and stable policies on educational standards. A special role belongs to the legal tradition, which ensures the preservation of the quality level of education and forms an idea of the necessary set of academic disciplines and the content of programs.