On the basis of statistical data on applicants and interviews with those responsible for admissions at the Udmurt university, the authors discover and analyze a discrepancy between the level of competition at the stages of application and of admission to the university. The authors call this phenomenon pseudo-competition. This article discusses the main factors contributing to this situation: the growing popularity of higher education, the demographic decrease, the introduction of Unifi ed State Exams, the possibility for prospective students to simultaneously apply to several programs, etc. Under these conditions, a regional university needs to develop a new education policy, based on increased attention to the quality of education and on innovative forms of interaction with all social institutions of modern society.