As a descriptive-survey research having a mixed methods design, this study identifies the relevant indicators, puts forward rating and validation of a model. In the qualitative phase, the population included university experts, faculty members, experts in the field of higher education, and policymakers. We selected 10 people as participants through purposive sampling. In the quantitative phase, all faculty members of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences including 226 people were selected by the complete enumeration method. The data collection instrumentation included an interview and a researcher-made questionnaire. The results of the analysis of interviews with Grounded Theory and content analysis revealed that the factors affecting the academic recession of faculty members at Ardabil University of Medical Sciences include: personal factors (age, IQ, work history, personality traits, marital status, and gender); organizational and environmental factors (type of employment, organizational structure, salary and benefits, governing relationships in promotion, university management, and rules and regulations); psychological factors (lack of success, inappropriate social relationships, not enjoying work, and job stress); work factors (being members of different scientific committees, priority of economic and financial factors among physicians, prioritization of work in the personal surgery office, lack of appropriate incentives and penalties, the value of the title of physician and no need for promotion, and ignoring medical errors), and skill factors (lack of language proficiency, weakness in public speaking, and lack of skill in using specialized software).