The purpose of the research is to identify the features of organizing students' independent work, to study the psychological component of this process. The study used a questionnaire for the subjective assessment of the organization of students' independent work and valid psychodiagnostic methods for diagnosing personality characteristics of attitudes towards innovation. The study involved 52 students and 46 teachers from universities in Russia and Bulgaria. It was found that a teacher plays a leading role in organizing the independent work of students, so he/she must be able to quickly and effectively manage this process. There is a need for experience exchange, interaction of teachers within the framework of international conferences and foreign internships to improve the educational process. The study identified insufficient technological and psychological readiness of students and teachers to change the educational process associated with an orientation towards independent work; a low level of creativity of teachers has been found. Internal motivation for innovations in the educational process among students is higher than among teachers, which indicates the dissatisfaction of the former and the inertia of the latter. Among the forms of independent work, routine formal methods predominate, and the indicators of research work are extremely low, which correlates with the data of scientific literature about the prestige of pursuing science among students.