While intrinsic motivation is often seen as the ideal form of motivation for entering higher education, students may also have external motivations related to the life after graduation. There has been limited focus on how different enrolment motivations are related to dropping out of higher education. In this study, we investigated how motivations and dropping out are related in nursing programmes versus business administration programmes. The study demonstrates that type of motivation predicts the risk of dropping out differently for students of the two study programmes. For nursing students, intrinsic motivation reduces the risk of leaving the programme before completion, while for business administration students an instrumental type of motivation related to status and money reduces this. The study nuances the assumption that intrinsic motivation for choosing a study programme is the most favourable form of motivation when it comes to persistence through the programme.