The relevance of problem of adaptation of students to the conditions of the educational process of the higher educational institutions is discussed. Interdependence of personality and education environment in the process of adaptation of student to new conditions is shown. Factors of effective adaptation of personality to the changing in socio-cultural environment are considered.Specics of adaptation of students of Russian higher educational institutions are describes by the results of comparative analysis of monitoring results «Student 2016» with previous years (2009 and 2012) The authors attempt to determine directions of development of process of adaptation of students of higher education institutions using technologies of educational activities based on psychological testing and the sociological survey data on the issue of studying the factors of adaptation (features of motivational sphere of students and their perception of the adaptation process in high school