Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation: does major choice make a difference?

Prior literature emphasises supply side issues concerning the modularisation of university programmes such as curricula issues and enhanced learning opportunities. Comparatively little is known about the demand side, such as why students choose specific modules. This article presents an investigation that was specifically designed to improve understanding of the factors that contribute to student module choices and draws on a large primary dataset comprised of students following a wide range of majors at a new university business school. The dataset allows for differences between the relative importance of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations between majors to be identified and some implications of this to be discussed.