CCD 21 I AÑO 8 I VOLUMEN 7 I MURCIA 2012 I PÁG. 201 A 212 I ISSN: 1696-5043 C C D 201 Palabras clave: estudios y deporte, tutoría para estudiantes deportistas, proceso de aprendizaje, toma de decisiones académicas. Abstract This work focused on the analysis of the difficulties that university students who are high-level athletes facing in trying to balance their educational process with highly competitive sport. Without adequate support to manage these two activities, many of these students may

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... be led to situations of stress, failure, or dropping out of school or sports. Therefore, the objective of the present research was oriented toward the diagnosis of the conditions under which the learning process of these student-athletes is carried out and the assessment of the needs they have to combine the learning process with sport. A descriptive and exploratory approach was followed, using different strategies of qualitative analysis: an in-depth interview with 16 senior student-athletes recognized by the Sports Council and enrolled in various courses at the University of La Laguna during the 2009-2010 school year as well as a discussion group with 8 critical informants whose professional activity was linked to training and sports. After the process of content analysis, essentialization, and categorization of the response propositions offered by the participants, the results showed that there are diverse variables that determine the parallel development of these two activities (time, motivation, study requirements, etc.). The study demonstrates the need to take into account the personal reality of these students, introducing support measures, and adapting teaching to the situation and to the specific requirements for parallel development of sport and academia.