Introduction: Academic performance is of great importance in the educational system. Cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence are important factors that affect academic performance. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence with academic performance in nursing students at Ahvaz Azad University.
Materials & Methods:  The present study is descriptive in terms of its purpose based on structural equation testing, a cross-sectional study in terms of time dimension, and a survey in terms of data collection. The statistical population of this study consisted of 260 nursing students of Ahvaz Azad University in the academic year 2023-2024. The method of selecting statistical samples in this study was simple random sampling. The research data collection tools were the standard questionnaire of cultural intelligence by Ang et al., emotional intelligence by Bar-On, and academic performance by Pham and Taylor. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and PLS statistical software at two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The results obtained from the structural equation testing to examine the effect of cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence on academic performance showed that the indirect path coefficient was 0.33 and the t-statistic was 4.88. These values ​​indicate that the indirect relationship between emotional intelligence and academic performance through cultural intelligence is statistically significant.
Conclusion: Students with higher emotional intelligence are more likely to develop their cultural intelligence and, as a result, achieve better academic performance.