Organizational, psychological and pedagogical conditions for successful adaptation of foreign students to the academic and socio-cultural realities of higher education

Abstract

The article is devoted to identifying the organizational and psychological and pedagogical conditions for successful adaptation of foreign students to the academic and socio-cultural realities of Russian higher education; the relevance is due to the growth of the international contingent and the high proportion of students at risk in the early stages of education. The purpose of the study is to develop and empirically substantiate a model of guided adaptation by comparing the influence of organizational, pedagogical and psychological factors. The study was conducted in 2021-2023 on the basis of a consortium of technical universities of the Central Federal District (n=457; bachelor's degree/specialty; Asia 42%, Africa 28%, Middle East 15%, CIS 15%); scales SACQ, SCAS, PSS 10, questionnaires of objective indicators, methods of descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were applied analysis (SPSS 26). The integral success rate was calculated as a weighted sum of standardized grades for academic performance, socio-cultural integration, and psychological well-being, which ensured the reliability of the assessment. In the first semester, adaptation levels were identified: high – 18.6%, medium – 43,1%, low – 38,3%, which indicates a significant scale of the risk zone and the need for differentiated support. Correlation analysis showed the leading role of personalized support: the quality of curators and tutors has the greatest relationship with the integral indicator (r=0.714), followed by the effectiveness of the international department (r=0.652), clarity of teaching materials (r=0.538), involvement in extracurricular activities (r=0.477), living conditions (r=0.205). A comparative analysis of pedagogical models revealed the advantage of interactive approaches: project–based learning in mixed groups increases the average score to 4.21 on a five-point scale compared to 3.58 with the traditional model, individual tutoring - to 4.45, while reducing the variability of results. Psychological factors act as mediators: high educational motivation and low anxiety are associated with a higher level of socio-cultural integration; the influence of the diaspora is twofold. The multifactorial model explains about 62% of the variance of the integral indicator; curation (β=0.38), interactive approaches (β=0.29), and initial motivation (β=0.25) have the greatest predictive weight. Practical recommendations include prioritizing investments in the institute of curation and tutoring, modernizing teaching methods and developing international support services; a proactive support architecture based on early diagnosis and personalized trajectories integrated with project-based team learning formats and cross-functional coordination of university services is proposed.