The method of photo-thermally stimulated exoelectron emission (PTSE) is used to study the processes in the surface layers of HTSC ceramics based on YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ . A correlation is observed between variations of the exoemission current and the transition to the superconducting state. The experimentally detected hysteresis in the PTSE intensity of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ ceramics, when thermally cycled in the range T = 80-160 K, is limited by two processes. Below T = 90 K, the chemisorption has a significant effect on the physical phenomena under study, thus impeding the search for new PTSE regularities in HTSC ceramics. At the same time, exoemission properties of the ceramics considerably change in the range 80-160 K. It is also shown that the superconducting transition and the thermal absorption phenomena for an YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6.8 specimen are split in the studied temperature range, which allows the PTSE technique to detect the superconducting state and to observe the transition dynamics.