Abstract : This study aimed at investigating reasons behind failure of initiatives to reform medical curricula of Syrian universities. A qualitative study was undertaken, and data were collected through interviews with ten academic staff members from Syrian medical faculties in public universities. Inductive thematic analysis was performed to allow themes to emerge from the comments of the participants. Two researchers independently coded each interview using the Braun and Clarke model. QSR NVivo 11 software was used for statistical analysis. Three emerged themes that identify causes of failure to reform medical curricula were developed. Theme 1: personal reasons associated with circumstances of the academic member such as lack of technical and teamwork skills and lack of passion to participate in training program, and lack of inter-professional collaboration. Theme 2 was related to institutional reasons such as absence of clear strategy, rigidity of administrative regulations, interference of several authorities, and migration of medical members. Theme 3 was related to crisis impact such as economic sanctions that led to decreased mobility of staff, decreased number of capacity building programs that usually promote national and international collaboration and consequently enhance passion to improve the curricula. The study offers new insights into the challenges of medical curriculum reform in Syria and suggests strategies for overcoming these obstacles. Medical schools and educators should play and important role in reforming the medical curricula. Some of challenges that face academic members can be resolved.