Tabriz University of Medical Sciences Research and Development in Medical Education 2322-2719 10 1 2021 01 01 Factors affecting academic failure in medical students in Iran 14 14 10.34172/rdme.2021.014 EN Zohreh Tajabadi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9854-7260 Matineh Sadat Miri https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6015-3995 Soliman Ahmadi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0551-6068 Matineh Pourrahimi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0040-6337 Mojtaba Abdi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3600-9974 Hadi Jalilvand https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7705-6377 Mohammad Helichi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9456-6416 Nadia Pirzade Moghaddam https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2975-0131 Nafise Alinejade https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6888-2172 Alireza Hazbenejad Journal Article 10.34172/rdme.2021.014 2021 01 15 2021 06 23 Background: Students are considered part of the capital of each country. Several factors can affect their educational status and, as a result, contribute to their academic failure. The current study seeks to investigate the relationship between students’ academic failure and the affecting factors with the Iranian Educational Ranking of Universities. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The required sample size was calculated using Cochran’s formula. A researcher-made questionnaire with 5 parts was used to collect data. Kruskal Wallis and Spearman’s analysis of variance was used for analysis. The significance level was considered as 0.05. Results: A total of 1215 people participated; 13.7% of students had had an academic failure and 2.0% of them were on academic probation. There was a correlation between university RAD rank and academic failure (r = -0.098 and P = 0.0001) as well as student satisfaction (r = 0.264 – P = 0.0001). There was a significant difference between an academic drop and academic grade in three ranks of university (Pv= 0.0001), and, interestingly, having moved from Rank 1 to 3, having academic grade increases, and having academic failure decreases. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, the higher ranked the college campus is on the RAD scale, the higher the academic failure rate. For annual assessment of universities, it is proposed that assessment of academic failure and grades be used as a benchmark.