The relevance of this study is caused by the fact that the increasing competition among universities in the international market of educational services, as well as the inclusion of universities in academic ratings, shows a tendency to increase the share of international students studying in Russia. Joint education of Russian and international students has its own specificity, since students with different level of Russian language proficiency and different level of pre-university training are united in groups and cohorts. In these circumstances, without the introduction of new methods and approaches to scientific disciplines, it is impossible to train qualified specialists in accordance with international educational standards. The purpose of the paper is to identify factors influencing the academic adaptation of international students; to search for solutions of joint education tasks at a technical university; to present innovative methods of teaching economic disciplines. The materials of the paper present a practical value in the field of domestic higher education and open the possibilities of applying the used approaches to teach economic disciplines at technical universities within the joint education of Russian and international students.