[en] Students&rsquo; entry into university in Spain has traditionally been linked to the belief that the transition from secondary education to university education necessarily implies the ability to learn on one&rsquo;s own. There was a widely accepted conception according to which students assumed a kind of absolute autonomy when they started their university studies, which meant that the teaching staff should not intervene in their learning process. This reality that we have experienced in Spain for many years is opposed to what is experienced at the university centres with the highest recognition and prestige worldwide, namely Oxford and Cambridge, where tutorship plays an essential role. It was consequently necessary to re-examine the true meaning of university tutorship in Spain and this is the great opportunity that the European Higher Education Area can offer to Spanish Universities. The reformulation of university education must include a transformation in teacher-student relationships, placing a particular emphasis on the Socratic dialogue which, in our view, is the core of the tutorial relationship and needs to be made compatible with the tutor&rsquo;s professional authority with a view to achieve the right balance in that relationship. At present, university educators are considered to be effective if they help their students to identify their interests and prospects, accompanying them and guiding them so that they can achieve their academic aspirations and goals, and making it easier for them to develop competences which they are going to need as social beings in order to see themselves as an active part both in the group and in the university context as a whole. This is the framework in which the present research work has been carried out. Taking as a reference the perceptions, opinions and appraisals of tutors, our research had as its aim to analyse and assess the performance and reality of collaborative tutorial action at the University of Alicante, developed within the framework of the Tutorial Action Programme during the 2006-2007 academic year, the results of which lead to a clear conclusion: tutorial action represents a socialisation factor that supports and nourishes students throughout their academic experience at university.&nbsp;

[es] La entrada de los estudiantes a la universidad espa&ntilde;ola ha venido unida a la creencia de que la transici&oacute;n de la educaci&oacute;n secundaria a la educaci&oacute;n universitaria debe suponer la capacidad de aprender por s&iacute; mismo. Se ha tenido la concepci&oacute;n de que el estudiante asume una autonom&iacute;a absoluta al entrar en la universidad, que inscrib&iacute;a que el profesor no deb&iacute;a intervenir en su proceso de aprendizaje. Esta realidad que hemos vivido en Espa&ntilde;a durante a&ntilde;os, es contraria a lo que viven los centros universitarios con mayor reconocimiento a nivel mundial, como son Oxford y Cambridge, donde la tutor&iacute;a asume un papel principal. Por tanto, en nuestro pa&iacute;s era necesaria una reexaminaci&oacute;n del verdadero significado de la tutor&iacute;a universitaria y esta es la gran oportunidad que nos ofrece el espacio europeo de educaci&oacute;n superior a la universidad espa&ntilde;ola. La reformulaci&oacute;n de la educaci&oacute;n universitaria pasa por una transformaci&oacute;n en las relaciones profesor-alumno haciendo especial &eacute;nfasis en el di&aacute;logo socr&aacute;tico que, consideramos es n&uacute;cleo de la relaci&oacute;n tutorial y que debe compatibilizarse con la autoridad profesional del tutor para lograr un equilibrio en dicha relaci&oacute;n. Hoy d&iacute;a, se considera que el educador universitario efectivo es un tutor que ayuda a sus alumnos a identificar sus intereses y perspectivas, los acompa&ntilde;a y gu&iacute;a para que logren sus metas y aspiraciones acad&eacute;micas y les ayuda a desarrollar competencias que, como seres sociales, necesitan para sentirse parte activa del grupo y del contexto universitario. En este marco tiene lugar la presente investigaci&oacute;n, cuyo objetivo ha sido analizar y valorar, sobre la base de las percepciones, opiniones y valoraciones de los tutores, el desempe&ntilde;o y la realidad de la acci&oacute;n tutorial colaborativa en la Universidad de Alicante, desarrollada en el marco del Programa de Acci&oacute;n Tutorial, durante el curso acad&eacute;mico 2006-2007 y de cuyos resultados se desprenden conclusiones que vienen a considerar la acci&oacute;n tutorial como un factor de socializaci&oacute;n que sustenta y nutre al alumno en su trayectoria universitaria.&nbsp;