<p>University students in mainland China are increasingly facing academic challenges within a highly competitive environment. The present study investigated the relationship between academic demands and dropout intentions, with emotional suppression and academic boredom considered as serial mediators. Data were collected from 618 undergraduates across three universities and analyzed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that academic demands were significantly positively related to emotional suppression, which in turn was positively associated with academic boredom. Academic boredom showed a significant positive association with dropout intention. This study reveals that the relationship between academic demands and dropout intention was serially mediated by emotional suppression and academic boredom in our dataset. These findings suggest that university students experiencing high academic demands may be at greater risk of dropout not because of the demands themselves, but partly due to the serial process involving emotional suppression and increased academic boredom.</p>