EXPECTATIVAS ACADÉMICAS DEL ALUMNADO NO TRADICIONAL AL INICIO DE SUS ESTUDIOS UNIVERSITARIOS

INTRODUCTION. The presence of non-traditional students in Higher Education has increased recently over the last few decades. The university institutions are in need to offer a response adjusted to these students’ needs in order to facilitate their adaptation. On this matter, previous academic expectations have been recognized as a variable that contributes the adjustment of the new students to the university. METHOD. The aim of the current study is to find out the expectations at the beginning of university of non-traditional students and determine whether these expectations differ from those of traditional students. Moreover, we expect to analyse the relationship between their expectations and their expected performance. The sample included 940 first-year undergraduate students from the five areas of knowledge who answered a questionnaire focusing on academic expectations. The analysis was based on basic descriptive statistics, analysis of variance for related samples, correlations, multivariate analysis of variance and t-test, estimating the size of the effect using the Cohen's d. RESULTS. The results show that the non-traditional students also have high expectations, although somewhat lower when compared to those of the traditional students. The main differences affect the expectations not to let people of their immediate context down, to take advantage of opportunities for extracurricular social interaction and to achieve training for employment. Furthermore, to a lesser extent higher expectations in non-traditional students are associated with the expectation of a higher academic performance. DISCUSSION. In order to meet the non-traditional students’ expectations when they first access Higher Education we suggest a number of recommendations such as the intervention and educational guidance of this population so as to meet their expectations and favour their adaptation into Higher Education, namely to university life.