In the modern world, education is becoming one of the most important factors that ensure economic growth, social stability, and the development of civil society institutions. Higher education, along with cognitive and translational functions, should also implement the function of socialization, i.e., create conditions for the formation of a student's personality, taking into account the uniqueness and value of his psychological capabilities. And not all young people manage to quickly adapt to the harsh reality of student life, choose the right priorities, feel part of a huge student society, maintain their individuality and relevance, and lead a healthy lifestyle. In the conditions of university education, this leads to chronic underachievement, changes the direction of the development of students ' mental abilities, exhausts the nervous system, and ultimately leads to the aggravation of old and the development of new forms of social deformities in the youth environment. The presence of risk factors makes it as difficult as possible to develop professionally important qualities, skills and abilities in the learning process and negatively affects the professional development of a future specialist.
In general biological terms, adaptation is considered as a mechanism that ensures the adaptation of a living organism to constantly changing environmental conditions. But, as V. G. Aseev rightly notes, social factors (industrial and interpersonal relations, social ties, communication, etc.) are the same objective forms of influence on a person as biological factors.
Higher education has a huge impact on the human psyche, the development of his personality. In the process of developing the personality of a future specialist, the initial stage of training at a university plays a special role. Its complexity lies in the fact that the student is restructuring the entire system of value-cognitive orientations of the individual, mastering new ways of cognitive activity and forming certain types and forms of interpersonal relationships and relationships. The more effective the adaptation of students to university education, the higher the psychological comfort, educational motivation, orientation and nature of educational activities in the senior courses will be.
Adaptation in a higher educational institution is the assimilation of the existing norms and rules of the university, the establishment of interaction between students in the study group, with teachers and staff of the university. Social adaptation of students in the University is divided into: a) professional development, which is understood as an adaptation to the nature, contents, conditions and organization of the educational process, development of skills in teaching and research work; b) socio-psychological adaptation – the adaptation of the individual to the group, the relationship with her, have your own style of behavior.
The result of the adaptation process is adaptability. Some authors consider the concepts of "adaptation" and "adaptability" as synonyms. For example, A. A. Rean, A. R. Kudashev, A. A. Baranov define adaptation as "the process and result of internal changes, external active adaptation and self-change of an individual to new conditions of existence".
In our study, the concept of "adaptability" reflects the productive side of the adaptation process. Accordingly, the adaptation of students to study at the university implies the presence of the following features in the behavior and activities of students:
1) satisfactory psychological and physical condition of the student in educational and extracurricular situations at the university;
2) acceptance by the student of social expectations and requirements imposed on him, as well as compliance of his behavior with these expectations and requirements;
3) the ability to give the desired direction to what is happening in the university and to use the existing conditions for the successful implementation of their educational and personal aspirations and goals.
Higher education institutions, understanding the importance of adaptation of former students to learning, use various forms, means and methods to optimize it, since solving the issues of adaptation of first-year students in order to include them in the atmosphere of the university as quickly and painlessly as possible is an important step towards improving the educational process.
The purpose of the study is to identify the degree of adaptation of first-year students to the study group and educational activities.
To study the level of adaptation of first-year students of the educational Institution "Gomel State Medical University", we used the method of T. D. Dubovitskaya, A.V. Krylova"Adaptation of students in higher education".
The students ' results were processed according to the following criteria:
high level (13-16 points) - the student actively participates in the life of the university, accepts its norms and values, feels comfortable in a new environment;
level above average (9-12 points), level below average (4-8 points) - the student tries to participate in the life of the university, partially accepts its norms and values, feels relatively comfortable in the new environment;
low level (less than 4 points) – the student does not try to participate in the life of the university, does not accept its norms and values, feels uncomfortable in the new environment.
The study was conducted between November and December 2020. It was attended by 357 first-year students of the Medical Faculty of the Gomel State Medical University.
As a result of our research, the following results were obtained. On the scale of adaptability to the study group, first-year students have a high score (13.2). This indicates that students feel comfortable in the group, easily find a common language with their classmates, follow the norms and rules adopted in the group, can seek help if necessary, are able to be active and take the initiative.
On the scale of adaptability to learning activities, students have an above-average score (10.7). This indicates that it is not easy for all students to master academic subjects, successfully and on time to complete academic tasks, sometimes they need additional advice on the subjects they are studying, if necessary, students can ask for help from a teacher.
The results obtained indicate that the adaptability to the study group of first-year students is higher than the adaptability to educational activities. However, this is an important stage in the process of adaptation to the future profession, since psychological comfort, understanding and support from classmates and teachers is a necessary condition for the successful implementation of the student in the educational activity and future profession. And if adaptation to the future profession mainly falls on the senior courses, continuing after entering the job, then adaptation to educational activities and to the group should occur as early as possible, because otherwise there will be difficulties in updating the cognitive and personal resources necessary for successful training and mastering the profession. If a student is not able to master the requirements imposed on him in the university in a short time, as well as find a common language and mutual understanding with classmates and teachers, this will undoubtedly affect his academic success and desire to learn, which will lead to alienation from the educational environment and departure from the university.