Study Motivation and Academic Emotions in Engineering Students A Case Study in German Higher Education

Student dropout is an important topic, with dropout rates around 36 % being particularly relevant for engineering students. Universities need more knowledge about the determinants of finishing a study program without a degree. The paper assumes that motivation to study and current emotional states are highly important for achievement as well as for student retention. In a first attempt to investigate these aspects with engineering students, the paper investigates relations between motivations to study, emotions, and the self-reported achievement. The results indicate that emotions, self-efficacy and subscales of motivation explain variance in student achievement, supporting the importance of these aspects.