vol. 10 núm. 1 (2014)

This article contributes to academic reflection on scholarly reading and writing practices in Higher Education, stemming from the Colciencias–funded inter-institutional research project “What do we read and write for in the Colombian University? A contribution to the consolidation of academic culture in the country”. This project was a country-wide study of 17 universities. To this end, some results of a survey of college students from participating universities in the project are presented. We present a reflection on academic literacy from the analysis of the survey results, focusing on questions such as what did university students read and write about and what purpose did they fulfill. The survey showed, as tendencies, the predominance of the reading and writing on class notes, and the academic activities associated to assessment, aspects that are analyzed from educative practices proposed to institutions and the cognitive performance involved in writing.