This article presents a comparative study of the personal adaptive capabilities of Chinese students studying in Chinese, British and Russian universities. The study involved 224 Chinese first-year students who formed 3 groups: Group 1, 96 first-year students studying in China; Group 2, 100 Chinese first-year students studying in Russia; Group 3, 28 Chinese first-year students studying in the UK. The instruments employed were: a Personality questionnaire (adapted Rogers-Dymond method), the Big Five and the Method of studying the Research Potential of students (Bordovskaia et al., 2017). The study found that for all Chinese students, the general predictors of adaptation to university education are "openness" and "agreeableness." The differences are that the personal resources for the adaptation of Chinese students in Chinese and Russian universities are "research potential," in the British university "neuroticism," "extraversion" and "conscientiousness (self-control)." The findings point up the conditions for ensuring the future academic, social and communicative success of Chinese students in the educational environments of British, Russian and Chinese universities, and allow one to predict the reasons for the difficulties faced by individual students.