The pandemic has sharply actualized the digitalization of higher education, when all students were transferred to distance education. This period turned out to be very specific for students. On the one hand, these are new forms of education, new opportunities. On the other hand, limited experience of interpersonal communication with classmates and interaction with teachers. The purpose of this article is to assess the attitude of students to distance education and to highlight the conditions that determine the effectiveness of such education. The empirical basis of the work was the data of the monitoring 8th students monitoring in the Middle Urals, carried out under the leadership of Yuri Vishnevsky for 25 years. The sample consisted of 2,000 students from 13 universities in the Sverdlovsk region. The results show that the opinion of Ural students regarding distance education is not uniform; there are both its supporters (12%) and opponents (9%). Most students are ready to combine distance and classical forms of education in one proportion or another. They consider about 50% of distance education to be acceptable. The educational profile, attitude to the profession and the level of responsibility are the main factors that determine the attitude towards distance education. These factors determine the effectiveness of both distance and traditional education. However, in the case of distance education, higher requirements are imposed on the level of responsibility and awareness of the student. Otherwise, distance education is accompanied by various deviations. In the current reality, when a third of the Ural students do not represent the content of their chosen profession, more than half do not have any professional goal, it is important for the university, and, first of all, for teachers, not only to provide new educational opportunities, but also to help students' professional socializing so that they can be successful in the future. To do this, it is important to maintain a healthy balance of distance and classical education, which ensures the greatest efficiency.