Abstract: Today one of the major issues of the Russian higher education is the efficient implementation of the competency-based approach. This study considers the concept of personalization of the competency-centered training of students of the artistic-pedagogical specialization. The peculiar feature of the education personalization consists in the fact that the student’s personality is not only the main objective and value but also the subject of the education. In this study, the principles of personalization of the competency-centered training of students of the artistic-pedagogical specialization are presented: conceptual dimension, fundamental nature and generality, openness, problematicity, alternativity and variability. The essence of the special theoretical-art competence as one of the key competencies of bachelors in the artistic-pedagogical specialization representing the graduate’s readiness for the study, analysis and interpretation of art works, samples and phenomena of the artistic culture, the ability to use the systematized artistic-historical and artistic-theoretical knowledge for solution of the professional tasks has been revealed. The necessity of diagnostics of development of the special theoretical-art competence determined the design of the diagnostic tools as the result of which the criteria (cognitive, pragmatic, motivation-value), levels (high, intermediate, acceptable, low) and descriptors of the levels of development of such competence have been elaborated. During the process of study of the matter the following methods were used: induction and deduction of results of the psychological-pedagogical research, observation, questioning, testing, expert evaluation method and pedagogical experiment. The results of the experimental-research work have been presented that confirm the efficiency of implementation of the principles of personalization of the content of competency-based education of students of the artistic-pedagogical specialization.