The impact of the pandemic on the quality of education and the image of a university

The objective of the article is to identify the nature of the impact of the pandemic on the quality of education and the image of a university that uses distance education and artificial intelligence. The research methodology includes a complex of general scientific and special methods. A questionnaire and detailed interview have been formed with regard to the indicators of the leading rating systems of higher education. The data obtained have been summarized and analyzed using a focus group. The regression analysis has been used to examine the connection between students’ motives for making life easier in the context of the pandemic and distance education and the dangers of the professor-student-administration system. The sustainable links and tendencies of changes in the quality of education and the image of a university have been revealed. The following traps for students are referred to the stable connections: the absence of a valid system of control over the authorship of the executed works; the possibility of the unauthorized use of various electronic sources during the answer; the coronavirus quarantine leads to the erasure of the boundaries between the study and everyday life, personal space and social environment of students; the growth of students’ desire to have high marks in the subjects with the decrease of interest to study. Tendencies: the increase of the workload of professors and supporting (technical) staff; constant redistribution of time spent on the performance of official duties with a different degree of efficiency; the growth of willingness, a desire of the administration and university professors to improve the competitiveness of the university as a high-tech educational organization, included in the world map of science; the growth of dissatisfaction with the distance form of education, the degree of efficiency of return on investment in human development; the decrease in the responsibility of students to acquire knowledge through distance learning. The practical relevance of the work lies in the possibility of considering the identified sustainable links and tendencies to improve the education system at both national and global levels. This will enable attention to problem areas at the local level to achieve their overcoming with minimal financial and human losses through proactive actions. The theoretical relevance of the work lies in adding scientific and methodological elements to the theoretical foundations of the concept of development of higher education. The authors studied for the first time the problems of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of education and the image of a university. The originality of the research is determined by the original methodological model, which allowed the participants of the educational process to assess the essence of the ongoing changes associated with the coronavirus quarantine and with the help of an expert group to identify sustainable links and tendencies in changes in the quality of education and the image of a university