The paper concerns the importance of ethnocultural competence development of students in a polyethnic university environment. The study considers the value of ethnocultural competence from the point of view of creating conditions for positive ethnocultural interaction and forming students' ability to follow cross-cultural behavior standards. The purpose of the research was to define whether an online format is effective in providing for ethnocultural competence development, taking into account the students' opinions. The article analyzes the ways to improve the consequences caused by COVID-19 in the sphere of cross-cultural communication of students with a diverse ethnocultural background that study mostly online or have blended learning at Southern Federal University, Russia. The negative impact of the pandemic period on the process of ethnocultural competence development is observed considering technological and methodological drawbacks of online education. The research was based on the results of digital surveys, tests, questionnaires, and online class interviews, and involved 120 students of different majors. The study examines the attitude of students to the difficulties they have in the process of ethnocultural communication and takes into consideration their preferences concerning online and offline forms of education. The recommendations for improving the development of ethnocultural competence in online format are given.