The economic and organizational model of the international admission campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic (the case of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology)

Relevance. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities all over the world had to deal with a major challenge – transition from face-to-face to online learning. It was necessary to make this transition without damaging the quality of education and the transparency of examinations, especially entrance examinations taken by international students. The number of the latter fell significantly because of the pandemic and the competition for overseas students became especially fierce. One of the optimal solutions to the problem of conducting entrance exams during the pandemic was the online proctoring system. Research objective. This research aims to assess the economic efficiency of the online proctoring system by looking at the case of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). Data and methods. The article compares the most popular online proctoring systems on the market and used by universities in Russia and other country. Furthermore, it analyzes the results of the international admission campaign in 2020 and the economic effect of the in-house proctoring system in comparison with other readymade solutions. Results. The research results showed that the MIPT’s in-house proctoring system is no less efficient than the most popular readymade systems used by the majority of universities in Russia and worldwide, yet the costs of developing and operating the university’s own system are significantly lower. Conclusions. The development of an in-house online proctoring system can increase the economic efficiency of universities in terms of international admission in the forthcoming years.