The relevance of this study is due to the increasing importance and role of universities in the context of growing competition in the international market of educational services. Higher education institutions face the problem of needing to adapt their educational and socio-cultural environment for international students from different countries. Therefore, the aim of this study is to classify the national cultures of students so as to formulate recommendations for universities regarding the development of effective strategies for helping foreigners adapt to their host sociocultural and educational environments. The study is interdisciplinary in nature and based on international concepts, approaches and methods from the philosophy of education, sociology, theory of intercultural communication and cross-cultural management. The authors use system-structural and comparative methods of culture analysis, as well as cluster analysis techniques. The authors' sociological survey of international students studying in Russia during the 2019-2020 academic year formed the empirical base of the research. The regression analysis was applied to reveal correlation relations between indicators such as the degree of socio-cultural adaptation, learning adaptation, and degree of external locus of control of international students. The article presents culture as a multilevel system, with individual, organizational, national and global tiers. Based on the experience gained in scientific literature on the typology of cultures, we can see that students from different countries can be grouped based on two main criteria: Geographic and Mental/Cultural. Detailed recommendations are given for host universities wishing to develop an adaptive socio-cultural and educational environment.