Student leadership practice and engagement are gaining some relevance within the academic area, in order to prevent failure and train engaged students to achieve success in their studies. However, empirical evidence on the subject is saturated with research focused on adult leadership and engagement, making research difficult. Therefore, the main objective is to analyze the relationship and variables of influential student leadership in the academic engagement of students, through a systematic review. A search was carried out for articles in databases: Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo and Dialnet, obtaining a total of 22,169 studies that, after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, remained for the final sample 8 articles for review. The results show that good student leadership optimises the academic engagement of students, stating that some of the variables of influential leader in the dimensions of engagement are: participation, effectiveness and motivation among others. In conclusion, new studies are recommended to reduce the research gap and broaden knowledge on the topic of vital importance to the educational context.