Students of immigrant origin are still a vulnerable group in Spain with the lowest rates of access to the university that the native population, mainly due to the precarious socio-economic situation related to their immigrant status. Hence, success stories have been sought through life stories, audiovisual narratives and open questionnaires. Key competences and the most important factors considered useful to get to the University for the students college from immigrant families in Catalonia (Spain) have been identified. The results support the findings of previous research since students have highlighted that the most important factors for success are self-confidence and self-efficacy, family support, especially the mothers’ support and the role of some high school teachers because of their high expectations about the academic possibilities of immigrant student. The findings also offer clues to design future policies and actions to support this group to enhance their scholar success to access higher education. © 2018, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. All rights reserved.

Higher education Immigrant Audio-visual narratives Competencies School success

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