La orientación educativa en las universidades españolas: de la orientación laboral y vocacional a la atención psicológica [Educational guidance in Spanish Universities: From vocational and career advice to psychological assistance]

The present article reviews the concept of educational guidance from a historical point of view. The concept is developed from three areas of interest, professional, academic and personal. Although at the beginning the main area of in terest was the person’s suitability to a certain position, nowadays a wider vision from the ed ucational guidance is maintained, taking into account problems such as, how the student fits in an academic level and the psychological as sistance to the problems students have to face along their learning process. Although Spanish universities consider edu cational guidance as a valuable component, ma jor attention must be paid and resources invest ed. It is, also, pointed out, that a regulatory framework is mandatory which organizes the educational guidance and develops it in several aspects, academic, professional and personal. It seems to be also necessary the existence of ex ternal agencies to evaluate its quality.