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Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the level of development of metacognitive skills of undergraduate students in Colombia and to establish whether there are differences by institution of origin, or by gender or by semester. Method: A quantitative study and a non-probabilistic sampling was conducted. A total of 1.199 students from three universities participated, one public and distance modality; and the other two private and face-to-face modality. The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) was used to determine metacognitive skills. Results: At a general level, Colombian university students present a high level of development of their metacognitive skills with an average of 3,86 on a 5-point scale. When analyzing the abilities of the students according to the university of origin, the Kruskal-Wallis test shows that there are significant differences (p<0,05) in favor of the students in the distance modality. The Mann-Whitney U test allowed us to conclude that there are no significant differences by gender, although women have higher means (M = 3,88) than men (M = 3,83). It was possible to establish through the Spearman correlation that there are significant and negative differences in the level of metacognitive skills according to the semester of the students, as their skills decrease as they progress. Conclusions: Although students have a good level of development of their metacognitive skills it is required to strengthen especially evaluation processes. Students trained in virtual distance learning methodology showed a higher degree of development of metacognitive skills than those in face-to-face mode, which could be explained by a greater development of self-regulation as an indicator of maturity for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]