Teamwork is a common practice in higher education to enhance the students’ professional knowledge and to achieve a specific task. The effectiveness of teamwork especially in completing the group’s research project affects the students’ academic performance. By applying Stage Model of Group Development theory, this study examines the impact of four input factors namely size of group, norms of group, mutual trust and leadership style of group on the teamwork effectiveness of group research study in Chinese Petroleum Universities. Moreover, gender was identified as a moderator to examine the different perceptions and attitudes of male and female students towards teamwork effectiveness in Chinese Petroleum Universities. The sample comprised of 119 students from six Petroleum Universities, China. The outcomes reveal that mutual trust and leadership style of group statistically significant on teamwork effectiveness while size of group and norms of group do not have an influence on teamwork effectiveness. Besides, this study found gender moderates the relationship between leadership style and teamwork effectiveness but do not have moderating impact on the relationship of other three variables with teamwork effectiveness. Theoretically, this study provides better insights on the application of Stage Model Development theory for future researchers who aims to study the team development process. Practically, this study assists students and educators in forming an effective team and achieve excellent academic performance.