Abstract: The object of this research is the process of self-organization of students of the higher school. The subject is the principles of planning the educational process in the higher school in the conditions of self-organization of students on the basis of synergetic approach. The goal consists in theoretical substantiation of the model of educational process in the higher school in accordance with pedagogical synergetics. Research methodology is the pedagogical synergetics. Synergetic approach allows integrating the experience accumulated in pedagogical science and creating the model of educational process in the conditions of information society and the self-organizing learning environment. The authors examine the two approaches towards self-organization of students: personal and collective. The principles of planning the educational process in the conditions of self-study of students and rich information environment based on synergetic approach are proposed. The conclusion is made that synergetics can serve as a methodological framework for studying the phenomena of self-organization in the learning process of students in the higher school. The two forms of self-organization are determined: coherent (from homogeneous elements) and continual (from heterogeneous elements). It is demonstrated that progressive self-organization in pedagogical systems can be only of continual type. The article offers the following principles of planning the educational process by the type of continual self-organization: the principle of diversity at the entry to system, the principle of continuous interaction and openness of the system, the principle of nonlinearity of development, and the principle of system memory. The novelty of this work consists in formulation of the principles of pedagogical synergetics on the methodological level for planning the educational process of the students of higher school. The authors' special contribution lies in substantiation of the role of diversity and memory in the context pf self-organization in open pedagogical systems.