<p>The goal of academic medical postgraduate education in China is to train physician-scientists to meet increasing global health needs. However, a current lack of guidance on the competence on which these students should focus hinders their growth and offers them little confidence in the future, leading to shortages and losses of the health workforce. This study aims to construct a maturity competence model for medical academic postgraduate students. On the one hand, this study presents important competence-related structural aspects of academic medical postgraduates as well as their connotations. On the other hand, this study seeks to provide a new measurement tool in this context. This model was developed and validated on the basis of a mixed-methods study that included both qualitative and quantitative methods. The initial items used to measure competence were generated on the basis of behavioral event interviews. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to develop a new theoretical framework and measurement tool on the basis of a cross-sectional survey, after which the results were verified by conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Subsequently, on the basis of the results of paired-sample t tests, further improvements were made to the model. Additionally, data regarding the initial reliability and validity of the tool were collected. This research was conducted in China in 2024 over a period of 9 months. Nine mentors and 3 postgraduates participated in the interviews, 15 mentors were consulted, and 662 respondents recruited from 5 Chinese universities completed the survey. A 5-factor competence iceberg model for academic medical postgraduates was developed. The five factors were labeled cooperation and communication ability (F1), experimental/research ability (F2), academic performance (F3), learning ability and moral adherence (F4) and practical ability (F5). These factors explained 69.13% of the total variance in the 26 items on which this research focused. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.943. The content validities of the overall scale and each item were good (UA-CVI = 0.83, Ave-CVI = 0.98, I-CVI ≥ 0.78). The model fit indices, which were obtained via CFA, were acceptable (χ²/df = 2.969, NNFI = 0.901, RMSEA = 0.077, CFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.901, SRMR = 0.057). The average variance extraction (AVE) values pertaining to the five factors on which this research focused were 0.656, 0.644, 0.670, 0.572 and 0.640 ( &gt; 0.5), and the corresponding composite reliability (CR) values were 0.930, 0.915, 0.889, 0.870, and 0.877 ( ≥ 0.8), respectively. The results exhibited good reliability and validity as well as a good fit to the data. The competence iceberg model can help identify the competence needs of academic medical postgraduates that should be prioritized in the future, and the measurement tool, which exhibits strong reliability and validity, supports the future application of competence status and composition tests among medical students.</p>