The article considers some aspects of the organisation of adaptation of students with special educational needs in higher education institution. The relevance of the problem of student support in connection with modern changes in higher education institution is proved. Not only cognitive abilities of students are important, but also personal characteristics of each student. Psychological and pedagogical support in the process of adaptation of students with special educational needs to higher education institution is considered as a complex, multifaceted process of interaction between students and teachers in the form of activities in which psychological and pedagogical conditions for successful learning and development of each student are created.

The adaptation process of students with special educational needs is characterised by four main criteria: cognitive, emotional-volitional, experiential and motivational.

While the cognitive criterion determines the students' understanding of the purpose of learning in higher education and assimilation of the system of knowledge on how to achieve this goal, the emotional-volitional criterion is characterised by the students' ability to build interpersonal relationships with the presence of an individual approach to the nature and results of learning. And the emotional-volitional criterion allows to evaluate the general emotional state of a person and his/her attitude to the changed situation. The motivational criterion of adaptation shows how correctly the student perceives and evaluates himself and his social relations, knows the reasons for his behaviour in the new environment, which measures him by the