“I Study Because I’m Interested”: University Students’ Explanations for Their Disciplinary Choices

Abstract

This article explores how new university students in three different fields of study—arts, law and veterinary medicine—explain their own disciplinary choices (n = 536). Despite the differences between the study fields, the new students’ answers often included the word “interest”. Because interest is linked to high‐quality learning, the students seem to have a good starting point for their studies. On the other hand, the students use the concept of interest in several contexts, which may reflect diverse usage of the construct as well as different levels of interest development. On the basis of student expressions, five subcategories specifying the level of interest were identified. The study shows that it is possible to identify aspects of individual interest from the rather short written explanations of disciplinary choices.

Keywords:

• interest
• university students
• disciplinary choices