The article reveals issues related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of human activity. The necessity of transferring at the peak of diseases of educational institutions to the distance format of conducting classes is substantiated. Studying the articles of a number of authors, the high efficiency of distance learning for high school students and university students is noted; the forms of distance learning in various universities of the world and the problems of such learning are revealed; attention is focused on the possibilities of using a hybrid learning model in the educational process with preliminary recording of lectures on YouTube and conducting classes online using the Teams, Skype, Zoom technology platforms; an assessment of the perception of innovative digital technologies by teachers and students is carried out; it is proposed to submit practically significant, complex tasks for exams that require research and the use of competencies by students of several specialized disciplines.Considerable attention is paid to the organization of the educational process at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. It is noted that many problems of the transition to distance learning were avoided thanks to the advance, systematic and purposeful work to form the university digital environment. The general technological scheme of the educational process of the university in a pandemic is illustrated and disclosed in detail. Information about specialized programs and packages that support the educational process is provided. The role of 1C software products, 1C cloud solutions, which support many basic disciplines in various areas of student training, is especially noted. The possibilities and directions of students’ research work in the field of data analysis and machine learning are revealed. It is concluded that the transition of education to distance learning has not become critical for the Financial University. The University continues to train highly-demanded qualified personnel.