espanolEl conocimiento del cliente/usuario/estudiante es el punto de partida de toda organizacion dirigida a satisfacer las necesidades de un grupo de personas; mientras ello no ocurra es practicamente imposible disenar productos o servicios que respondan adecuadamente a las expectativas de los consumidores. En el caso particular de la Universidad Libre-Seccional Cali, que es una empresa de conocimiento, conocer detalladamente las caracteristicas de quienes son sus usuarios, debe constituir una prioridad comoquiera que a partir de ello se pueden disenar apropiadamente los planes de direccionamiento estrategico. La falta de informacion actualizada sobre el perfil socioeconomico de los estudiantes que ingresan a los distintos programas academicos ofrecidos por la Universidad, impide identificar aspectos tan importantes como estrato socioeconomico , genero, procedencia geografica, edad, estado civil, actividad laboral, naturaleza del colegio donde termino estudios de bachillerato, actividades e intereses en el tiempo libre, convivencia actual, tamano del grupo familiar, nivel educativo del padre y la madre, etc. Por lo anterior, la Universidad Libre-Seccional Cali, con la coordinacion del Programa de Economia con enfasis en Negocios Internacionales, decidio realizar una investigacion dirigida a identificar el perfil socioeconomico de los estudiantes que ingresaron a los diferentes programas de pregrado en el 2007/I y a partir de ello soportar el diseno y adopcion de estrategias de desarrollo hacia el futuro. Los resultados obtenidos involucraron estudiantes de los siguientes programas de pregrado: Administracion de Empresas, Contaduria Publica, Derecho y Ciencias Politicas y Economia con enfasis en Negocios Internacionales; por distintas circunstancias no se involucraron en el estudio estudiantes de Enfermeria, Ingenieria de Sistemas y Medicina. EnglishThe knowledge of the client/user/student, is the starting point of all organization directed to satisfy the necessities of a group of people; while it doesn’t happen, it is practically impossible to design products or services that respond appropriately to the expectations of the consumers. In the specific case of the Libre University of Cali which is a company of knowledge, to know the characteristics detailedly of those who are their users, should constitute a priority because starting from them it is possible to designed appropiately the plans of strategic management. The lack of information modernized on the socioeconomic profile of the students that enrol to the different academic programs offered by the University, prevents to identify aspects so important as: socioeconomic stratum, gender, geographical origin, age, civil state, labor activity, nature of the school where they finished high school studies, free time activities and interests, current coexistence, members of their family group, the parent´s educational level, and so on. For the above-mentioned, the Libre University of Cali with the coordination of the Program of Economy with emphasis in International Business, decided to carry out an investigation directed to identify the socioeconomic profile of the students that enroled to the different academic programs in 2007/I and starting from it, to support the design and adoption of development strategies toward the future. The obtained results involved students of the following academic programs: Business Administration, Public Accounting, Law and Political Sciences, and Economy with emphasis in International Business. For different circumstances they were not involved in the study students of nursing , System Engineering and Medicine.