What is motivation?

Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the energy to work towards that goal. Students who are motivated have a desire to undertake their study and complete the requirements of their course.
Are you a motivated student?
Being a motivated student doesn't mean you are always excited or fully committed to your study, but it does mean you will complete the tasks set for you even when assignments or practicals are difficult, or seem uninteresting.
Positive and negative Motivation
Sometimes a distinction is made between positive and negative motivation. Positive motivation is a response which includes enjoyment and optimism about the tasks that you are involved in. Negative motivation involves undertaking tasks because there will be undesirable outcomes, eg. failing a subject, if tasks are not completed.
Almost all students will experience positive and negative motivation, as well as loss of motivation, at different times during their life at University.
What seems to work best for most people is to understand that both positive and negative motivation are useful, and that sometimes students will need to search for motivation.

What is 'loss of motivation'?

You might experience loss of motivation as a reluctance to undertake an assignment or project, or attend a lecture or tutorial . As a result of loss of motivation you may be thinking about withdrawing from a subject, or taking leave from university for a semester, for a year, or 'forever'.
You may experience loss of motivation as if it were a lost object or a lost friend. You might feel:

anxious

confused

frustrated

angry

uncertain

depressed

How can motivation ' be lost'?

The most common reasons for loss of motivation are :

a change
accumulated changes
a negative experience
several negative experiences

Specific contributing factors might be:

a low mark or a series of low marks
getting behind on a program of study
responsibilities, other than study, taking priority
feeling isolated
study becoming irrelevant to short term or long term goals
a mismatch between the knowledge, beliefs or interests which a student has and the ideas with which they are coming in contact
the difficulty of subject material