ABSTRACT
Students in higher education come in all shapes and sizes, indeed we would find it hard to predict our own background and interests. There are many ways in which students approach their studies and that might be related to their previous experience, the reasons why they are studying, or their reaction to the college or university environment. Researchers have used the term learning orientation to describe the variety of student motivations, which might be academic, where student goals were mainly concerned with the academic side of university life, or vocational, where the student was concerned to get a job afterwards; personal, where they studied for personal satisfaction; or social where they were focused on socialising. Of course, this can change with circumstances, so one might have a vocational orientation at one point, and an academic orientation at another, and perhaps a combination of the two.
