Academic success - explanatory theories

Abstract The successful professional integration of higher education graduates is closely linked to the quality of students’ training during their university studies and their motivation to engage in the process of training and developing professional and transversal competences. Academic success can be defined either in terms of the high academic achievement of a well-established academic pathway or by reference to the extent of academic results achieved during training, during university studies and in line with training requirements. Definitions of academic success differ, due to different perspectives of analysis. Approaching academic success from an analytical perspective integrates categories of factors that explain academic success as a process. The present article aims to present a register of factors influencing academic success and to explain their influence on student personality and successful academic career shaping. Categories of factors related to the internal and external learning environment were considered, such as personal/individual, social, economic, cultural, educational and psychological. Academic success among students is moreover explained by reference to the management of learning activities implemented by students and aspects related to the flexibility dimension of learning in the academic space, with positive implications on it. Academic success is also explained by considering academic standards and the achievement of these standards as a measure of assessment. The philosophy of defining academic success identifies the concept as being a relative one. In this sense, student satisfaction with one’s own academic performance can integrate academic success. From an academic perspective, high academic achievement, objectively measured, characterises academic success.