Students’ Motivation for Honors Programs in the Netherlands

Abstract

This study aimed to examine student motivation for honors programs using two types of motivation (autonomous and controlled) of Dutch traditional students, Dutch non-traditional students, and international students. Data were collected using Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A). K-means cluster analysis with autonomous and controlled motivation was conducted to identify the various types of motivation clusters. Subsequently, motivational profiles were compared using Analysis of Variance between Dutch traditional students, non-traditional students, and international students. Furthermore, associations between background variables and relative autonomous motivation of students to participate in the honors program were conducted. The response rate was 33.25% (n = 399). Four motivational profiles were identified: (1) HAMC (High Autonomous and Moderate Controlled), (2) HALC (High Autonomous and Low Controlled), (3) MALC (Moderate Autonomous and Low Controlled), (4) and MAMC (Moderate Autonomous and Moderate Controlled). Most of the honors program students in this study were represented in the good quality-HALC motivational profile. The findings also showed higher proportions of males (n = 71, 48%) and females (n = 120, 49.4%) in the good quality-HALC motivation profiles. Almost half of the students were found in the good quality cluster.