The globalization of the economy and the development of international cooperation, which have been a key priority for many countries over the past few decades, have shown negative consequences for the whole world when an epidemiological threat arises. The transition to online learning has become virtually the only practical response of the education system to the emerging challenge. As part of the preparation of the scientific work, a sociological survey was conducted among students of economic directions about their attitude to online learning during the pandemic. The survey showed that students are generally satisfied with the organization of training in the online learning format and rather highly assess the readiness of the university and teachers to quickly switch to online learning format. The article highlights the main directions of development of the education system, due to the inevitability of the development of online learning and distance education. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020.