Objective of the study was to increase the effectiveness of adaptation of foreign students to university education using a differentiated approach to physical education. Methods and structure of the study. The study involved a total of 504 people, surveyed according to the method of objective evaluation of their current psychological state and personality characteristics-CMS (Current Mental State), as well as their functional fitness level (Ruffier test) to determine the degree of adaptation of foreign students to the new living conditions [3]. Sampled for the study were the students who had come from other countries to study at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Based on the level of their adaptation, we differentially selected the corresponding means of physical culture to correct negative states. Study results and conclusions. The use of differentiated approach to the means of physical culture to adapt foreign students for training activity contributed to the improvement of their performance and adaptation rates. The number of foreign students tested with the low physical working capacity rates decreased from 227 people (45%) to 161 (32%), those with the average level increased from 232 people (46%) to 298 (60%), and those with the high level increased from 45 people (9%) to 55 (11%). At the same time, 29% of foreign students tested with the poor physical working capacity rates proceeding to the group with the average physical working capacity rates. The group of students with the good working capacity rates increased by 22%. The differentiated approach to the use of means of physical culture to adapt foreign students for training activities enabled us to improve their adaptation rates on average by 15 and 11 points in the second and third groups, and also increase the average level of physical working capacity by 24.4% of the entire sample of foreign students.