Background: Nursing students are challenged to think and impart in ways that will prepare them for practical work in a complex healthcare environment, Metacognition ability refers to an individual's knowledge of his thinking allowing them to design their thinking properly. In addition, high self-efficacy enhances students' accomplishment and personal well-being since student with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered. Aim: To explore metacognitive ability and academic self-efficacy and their relation to role transition as perceived by nursing students. Design: Descriptive correlation design was utilized. Setting: The study was conducted at Faculty of nursing, Benha University. Subjects: A convenient sample of 4^th year nursing students who enrolled in nursing administration department in the first term of academic year 2020/2021, the final number of sample size was 214. Tools: Three tools were used for data collection as follows; Metacognitive ability scale, Academic self-efficacy scale and Modified Perceptions of role transition questionnaire. Results: Two thirds of nursing students have high level of metacognitive abilities, more than half of them have high level of academic self-efficacy and more than two fifth perceived role transition moderately. Conclusion: There was a highly statistically significant correlation between metacognitive ability and academic self-efficacy, and a highly statistically significant positive correlation between academic self-efficacy and role-transition. Recommendations: Implementing learning strategies that promote nursing students' development of metacognitive abilities, studying the impact of academic self-efficacy and meta-cognitive ability on clinical decision-making ability among nursing students. And providing an orientation program for nursing students about role transition.