Students scientific-research conferences in a foreign language are held in almost every University regardless of the direction of training of future specialists. Despite the continuous improvement of their organization, the issue of criteria for the evaluation of student performances is still relevant. However, this aspect is particularly significant both for the creation of the concept of the conference and for the preparation of participants. The present study revealed the lack of clear guidelines in the development of criteria and as a result their imbalance. The selection of a new foreign language research competence helped to fill this gap and to formulate the basic approaches to the development of assessment scales for oral and written statements of students in a foreign language. The proposed criteria were approved by the members of the international jury whose suggestions were taken into account in the final formulation. © 2019, Slovenska Vzdelavacia Obstaravacia. All rights reserved.