Factors Influencing Students’ Academic Performance in Higher Education in Nepal: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The higher education sector has played a crucial role in promoting social and economic progress. The academic achievement of students does not only affect individual progress but also helps to contribute to produce skilled human capital. This study reviews the existing empirical studies to identify and synthesize the key factors influencing students’ academic performance in higher education in Nepal. The study employed the systematic review design based on PRISMA framework. The studies were searched in Google Scholar, NepJOL, ERIC and JSTOR to identify studies published between 2013 to 2025. The search strategy used Boolean combination of keywords such as “academic performant”, “higher education” and “Nepal”. Reference lists of selected paper were screened to identify additional relevant studies. Furthermore, official documents and policy reports published by the Ministry of Education, University Grants Commission were reviewed to strengthen the contextual understanding. Initially seventy five articles were identified out of which twenty articles met the inclusion criteria for detailed review. Data were analyzed to identify main factors affecting academic achievement. The key findings revealed that social-economic factors, institutional factors, pedagogical factors and psychological factors together influence student’s outcomes. Psychological factors influence more than other factors in academic performance in higher education. The finding of the study highlighted the need for interventions to enhance institutional capacity, counseling system, support well-being and promote equitable access to organization resources. The findings provided evidence based insights for educators, policymaker, university administrators and researcher to improve academic output and overall education quality and students success in Nepal.