Introduction: This study was carried out to determine the most important risk factors of moti-vational deficiencies among university students.

Method: Two hundred seventy two students (124 males, 148 females) aged 18-25 from different colleges of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in the city of Yazd took part in this study. The employed questionnaire incorporated four groups of motivational factors including pri- mary and secondary physiological motivations, motivations for psychosocial development, spiri- tual motivations and motivations based on educational needs. The obtained data were analyzed using means ranking and analysis of variance.

Results: The findings of this study indicated that anticipation of no appropriate access to primary and secondary physiological needs such as accessing welfare services, favorable future job and income, as well as students’ dissatisfaction with the university’s present educational level and fa- cilities have all equally led to remarkable motivational deficiencies.

Conclusion: Motivational deficiencies may potentially lead to pessimism, anxiety and depression as well as poor academic performance in students.