Investigating Factors Affecting Overseas Students' Academic Achievement: a Systematic Review on International Documents

Introduction: Success in achieving scientific outcomes is of special importance for students studying overseas and inland. The aim of this study was to investigate national and international documents and evidences considering factors affecting overseas students' academic achievement in recent years. Methods: The main keywords used in this study were: academic success, scholarship, foreign student, and overseas students and search engines included Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Pubmed, and Google Scholar. The results were combined and the obtained articles were divided into three categories of related, semi related, and not-related based on thematic relationship with study subject. Results: Almost 28000 records were found through these 5 internet databases. Out of 204 articles under investigation, 27 articles met the criteria for inclusion in the study. In performing content analysis, main cases included: fluency in English and the language of the place of the study, the effect of demographic factors, the educational programs before detaching students to overseas, the effect of socioeconomic, personal and familial factors, and the ability to communicate with supervisor. Conclusion: Fluency in English and the language of the place of the study is among superior characteristics of scholarship students. Additional factors such as supervisor, personal features of every individual and living condition are among important factors.