Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography

Intrinsic motivation has been considered as the dominant motivation of adult students in continuing postgraduate education. However, the strength of an intrinsic motivation to learn does not explain the phenomenon of dropout where the student withdraws and does not return or dropping out where the student withdraws and then recommences their postgraduate research studies. This paper draws on qualitative data collected as part of a doctoral thesis to examine this phenomenon ethnographically. The study explores motivations which have been lessened or abandoned by the influence of external factors and the effect that these external factors have on the motivation to learn with respect to their influence on student withdrawal