The present article explores the problems of personnel policy in the higher education system concerning the incentive role of remuneration and career development opportunities. At present, due to several major socio-economic changes, a transformation of labor relations in the system of higher education is taking place. As a result, new approaches to both the management of educational institutions and the selection of university faculty and the remuneration and career development of teachers are required. The goal of the study is to analyze individual modern trends in the development of incentive methods in higher education as a feature of personnel policy. The article demonstrates that as a consequence of the economic transformations, changes requiring an increase in the quality of graduates are occurring in university management which inevitably influences the expansion of the professional requirements for teaching staff. It is established that in modern conditions, external control is replaced by internal one, academic freedoms are displaced by the administration, and academic standards are modified and replaced by formal rules. This process is accompanied by considerable changes in the university personnel policy and the relationships between the administration and teachers. Various examples of human resources policy organizations adopted in different countries are studied. The features of labor contracts with teachers, the conditions of their work, and career opportunities are investigated. Special attention is paid to various approaches to stimulating teaching activity. The shortcomings that do not allow achieving a higher quality of higher education in Russia are identified. Proposals for improving personnel policy in higher education aimed at improving its quality are presented.