The article focuses on the problems of students’ adaptation under international academic mobility programs. The aim of the study was to analyze the students’ experiences under international academic programs, to identify challenges of adaptation to new education systems and to state the role of language training in this process. The urgency of the problem stems from the fact that international academic mobility as one of the most effective ways to develop educational opportunities at the individual level plays an increasingly important integrating role in the global system of higher education and contributes to the formation of diverse labor resources. Its integral part is the necessity to deal with a different culture which requires both language proficiency and cultural competence. An important factor that determines successful adaptation to learning abroad is the level of student’s professional, cultural and communicative competence he gets in his “home” institution. To address this goal the authors carried out some theoretical analysis of philosophical, sociological, psychological and pedagogical literature; studied and summarized teaching experience; applied methods of psychological and pedagogical diagnostics (observation, conversation, testing, questioning). Some prominent characteristics of Russian and foreign students’ adaptation abroad were identified using a specially developed questionnaire. The data helped identify the factors positively and negatively influencing the process of adaptation. The authors of the article outline the role of language training in facilitating students’ adaptation abroad. The practical importance of research implies that the basic provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in research dealing with the peculiarities of adaptation abroad in the academic mobility programs.