Some educators argue that entry standards are the most important determinants of successful completion of a university programme; others maintain that non-academic factors must also be considered. In this study we sought to investigate open and distance learning students' perceptions of the factors affecting academic performance and successful completion of programmes at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU). We sampled fifty final year students from the Faculty of Social Sciences to respond freely to the question: What factors have, according to you, the most important influence on your academic performance and completion of your programme at the university? These participants identified university support services; student personal characteristics; the socio-economic environment; and funding as the most important determinants of their performance and completion of the programme.