The adaptation of Spanish Universities to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) entails significant changes in terms of planning, developing and assessing teaching and learning processes, and students have now been positioned as the protagonists of such processes. Bearing in mind the fact that the way we teach influences how students learn, it is crucial to find out motives and strategies students have in their learning, and how these influence students´ learning needs.

For the last 30 years research into education has resulted in a body of knowledge and results that have in turn provided models which aim to explain how teaching and learning take place from the protagonists´ perspective (Hernández Pina, 2002, 2004; Hernández Pina et al., 2005). These studies may shed light on new perspectives regarding learning and teaching approaches within the EHEA (Biggs, 1999; Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001).

This study was inspired by our experience as university teachers in Spain. Following the Bologna Process guidelines, the first group of undergraduate students across different degrees will graduate this year 2012. The results we present in this study may provide useful information and tools for assessing how  our new education system has developed in our country. In this paper we describe students´ perceptions of what the learning needs of students may be, and analyse how these perceptions may vary according to sex, approach to learning, and subject area of students.  

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