The article examines the adaptation of Russian students in the context of the transformation of higher education through the prism of management decisions in universities concerning the optimization of the adaptation process in all its main areas. The urgency of the problem is due to the insufficient readiness of a significant part of the undergraduate students to study at universities, especially regional ones. The problem of the study is the discrepancy between the adaptation needs of students and the possibilities of their implementation in the conditions of transformation of higher education. The task of the university administration is to determine the factors of successful adaptation of students and justify the need to develop its comprehensive program. This task acts as the main one in the justification of management decisions regarding the features and methods of adaptation at the university. A number of methodological and disciplinary approaches were used as a theoretical framework for the study of students' adaptation. Among the first are community-based, resource-based, activity-based (based on practice-oriented and project-based) approaches, among the second are sociological, psychological, pedagogical approaches. All these approaches are aimed at understanding the conception of adaptation of university students to their university life and its theoretical, empirical, and practical use, as well as at finding and substantiating managerial solutions to adaptation problems. The empirical basis of the article was the results of a Russian study conducted in May-July 2022. The general population includes 1st and 2nd year students enrolled in bachelor's and full-time specialty programs in various trainingareas. The total volume of the sample is 15,902 people, the maximum sampling error did not exceed 1%. The main research results are: analysis and ways to optimize the adaptation of students to educational, scientific, project activities, as well as the justification of programs for managing the adaptation of students through curatorship, tutoring, student and scientific and pedagogical mentoring, the elaboration of the ethical code of the university.