Governments are aiming to expand the intake to higher education, so it is important to understand what motivates students to enter university and choose a particular programme. The aim of this study was to see whether a motivational orientation framework, developed to explain motivation to study, could also be applied to motivation to enrol in a selected university programme. Data were collected through individual open interviews with 36 undergraduate students at three universities in Hong Kong. Analysis used a grounded theory approach. The motivational orientation framework consists of six continua, labelled: compliance, individual goal setting, university lifestyle, sense of belonging, career and interest. It was possible to interpret data on decisions to go to university and to pick particular programmes with the framework. Students could be allocated to a position on each continuum, which then characterised their initial motivation for study.
[Copyright of Studies in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070903023510]

How the enrolment intention to the next course of 402 adults enrolled in (P1-3) junior English courses in eight Caritas Adult Education Centres were affected by their expectation and the classroom environment was explored by the author, who found that a strong relationship between the enrolment intention and the classroom environment existed.