<p>Maladaptive perfectionist tendencies are increasingly prevalent among university students and negatively impact mental health. While self-compassion is a known mediator between global perfectionism and negative mental health outcomes, the domain-specific role of academic perfectionism remains underexplored. This study examined whether self-compassion mediates the relationship between academic perfectionism and mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, and stress) among university students. The sample for the study consisted of 147 participants, aged 18-25 and attending a university within the United Kingdom. Self-compassion was measured using Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003). Academic Perfectionism was measured using the College Academic Perfectionism Scale by Liu and Berzenski (2022). Stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983). Anxiety was measured using the Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (ASQ; Baker et al., 2019). Depression was measured using the Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996). Participants completed an online survey assessing these variables. Results indicated that academic perfectionism was associated with negative mental health outcomes both directly and indirectly through reduced self-compassion. Exploratory analyses further revealed that while self-compassion mediated the effects of both self-oriented and self-critical academic perfectionism on mental health, only self-critical perfectionism showed a significant direct effect. These findings expand current knowledge by highlighting the importance of assessing domain-specific perfectionism and suggest that universities should address perfectionism and promote self-compassion to help protect student well-being.</p>