The issue of the feasibility of a significant increase in the share of distance (remote) learning in modern higher education and a reduction in-side (auditorium) classes is discussed. The following factors were taken into account: the quality of education, its accessibility, the specifics of distance learninf, economic benefits, the personification of training courses, the monitoring and evaluation of the acquisition of knowledge, the awareness of the possibilities of distance learning, the attitude of the faculty stuff and university administrations towards them. It is shown that distance learning provides high-quality education, personifies the educational process, most fully implements the key-principle of LLL - "learn when, how and where you feel comfortable." Based on the internal needs of universities - the solution of personnel problems, the optimization of the educational process, the desire to improve the quality of education and its competitiveness - the possible benefits that stimulate the use of online courses in educational programs are indicated. The role of informal distance learning, which can become an effective means of educational work in higher school, is studied. It becomes an effective mean of socializing not only students, but other youth groups (for example, blogging community). Already today group self-education is actively developing, especially within the framework of informal network communities, public and religious associations. In these socio-political processes, universities can occupy an important domain that society initially assigned to them and which they more or less successfully mastered along while their entire history.