Why some people succeed at university without being the ‘top students’

Many students arrive at university thinking that success is simple: follow the curriculum, complete the required work, get good grades and move forward. And, in many cases, that is exactly what they do — they meet expectations, pass their courses and progress in their academic and professional careers. Yet many discover along the way that much more was expected of them than just good grades, and that it is then difficult to bridge that gap. 

Over the last twenty years as a university professor, I have often seen some of the most capable students — thoughtful, hard-working and clearly committed — struggle when they move on to graduate studies. They become uncertain and frustrated when the recognition they receive does not match the significant time and effort invested. This is generally not due to a lack of ability, but to a misunderstanding of what academic success requires; they have not learnt the rules of the game, because these have never been clearly explained. 

A set of unspoken norms 

University life is structured by a set of unspoken norms, rarely articulated and often taken for granted. Students are expected to demonstrate intellectual initiative and creativity, not merely to complete the assigned work. 

They are expected to take risks: to ask questions, experiment, challenge what they are learning, and put forward their own ideas. They must also learn to establish themselves in their field, interact with others and promote their work — for example, by presenting at conferences, contacting professors to participate in research projects, or attempting to publish their initial ideas, even in modest outlets such as student journals or popular science platforms. 

These skills are not secondary: they are central to academic and professional success. Yet they are rarely taught explicitly. 

Formal and informal criteria 

As professors, and within university programs, we devote a great deal of effort to explaining the formal assessment criteria required to pass courses and degrees. We are also increasingly offering professional development training to prepare students for careers outside academia. 

By contrast, we do far less to help students understand how academic institutions actually work — how expectations are formed, how decisions are made, and how to navigate this environment, particularly at the graduate level. All too often, we assume that students will acquire this knowledge by osmosis. 

Part of the problem lies with us professors. Having ourselves learned to navigate these expectations, and having successfully established ourselves in the academic world, we tend to take these elements for granted. We assume that the strongest students will simply “get it,” that they’ll know how to identify what matters and adapt accordingly. And when they fail to do so, it is tempting to conclude that they simply haven’t tried hard enough. 

How the university system works 

But this assumption overlooks a key point: students do not enter university with the same understanding of how it works. 

From their perspective, much of academic life remains opaque. At the undergraduate level, professors are seen primarily as teachers — some students even seem to think that their professors live in their offices. As they progress through their studies, students discover more of the research dimension of university life, but always in a piecemeal fashion. 

Many aspects remain largely hidden: the time spent preparing for lectures, the work involved in writing articles and grant applications and dealing with rejections, the administrative tasks that shape university life, as well as the informal norms that guide assessment and recognition. 

Yet students are expected to navigate a system whose fundamental expectations have never been fully explained to them. 

An initial inequality 

This disconnect can also reinforce existing inequalities. Some people arrive at university with prior familiarity with the academic environment — through their family background, their life experience or forms of informal mentoring — and are thus better placed to understand these unspoken rules. Others must discover them for themselves, often through trial and error. In a competitive environment, this difference is decisive. What we consider “obvious” has in fact been learned, and not in the same way by everyone. 

This situation points to what several studies describe as a hidden curriculum: a set of implicit norms and unspoken expectations that shape academic pathways and which students must learn to decipher as they progress through their studies. 

Students naturally have a role to play. Getting actively involved, asking questions, seeking opportunities to engage and taking intellectual risks are integral to their development. Learning to identify and understand implicit expectations is in itself a skill that extends beyond the academic setting, as all professional and social environments have their unwritten rules. 

But this responsibility cannot rest solely on their shoulders. If we expect students to navigate complex and often implicit contexts, we must also do our part by making these expectations more explicit — in the way we teach and supervise, and in the structure of our programs. 

Making the “academic game” transparent

I have attempted to make some of these rules more visible through writings aimed at a wider audience, notably on my weekly blog and in an open-access book devoted to Playing the academic game. The aim is not to provide a recipe for success, but to offer guidance and make clearer what already influences students’ academic trajectories. 

University is not merely a place for acquiring knowledge. It is also a space where one learns to navigate a specific intellectual and institutional culture. If we expect students to succeed there, then leaving these rules implicit is not neutral. Making them explicit does not simplify the game — but it does allow more people to participate on fairer terms. 

The French version of this text, Pourquoi certains réussissent à l’université sans être « meilleurs élèves », was published in La Conversation on April 23, 2026.