Abstract:

The beginning of higher education is a very important moment in the life of students, in which the relationships established between peers can be crucial and determining for the development of their studies. Among other things, the help and support they receive, both academically and personally, may depend on these relationships.

In this study we will analyze the importance that certain variables acquire in the establishment of these relationships, with special emphasis on the effect that gender can have.

We will study the relationships established at the beginning of higher education, in the specific case of students of the Bachelor’s Degree of Business Administration at the Alcoi campus of the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain. We will study the relations that are established at the beginning of their studies and we will verify if there is a tendency to group and to establish relations between the peers of the same gender and if this tendency is maintained throughout the following courses, or if with the passage of time it tends to break this tendency and to establish new relations independently of the gender. The results obtained can have important consequences in the organization of the learning processes of university students, thanks to a better knowledge of their behavior in the classroom and to the improvement in the establishment and definition of work groups and learning activities.

Keywords:

Higher education, gender, students relationships.