The article presents an analysis of factors influencing the students´ motivation to study economic subjects in economic and technical study programmes in the conditions of a practically oriented college. The research is focused on quality management systems of universities and the competitiveness in the tertiary education market. Specifically, the area of quality of higher education is addressed, through students' assessment of the subject of Business Administration. Motivation factors related to teaching techniques were classified and the intensity of motivation of the respondents was investigated in the questionnaire survey. The statistical analysis of data suggests that there are differences in the motivation of students of economic and technical study programmes. Students of technical study programmes Applied Computer Science are more demanding and have higher expectations from study programmes compared to students in the study programmes of Finance and Management, whose expectations are lower. The results are discussed and compared with a similar foreign research. A pedagogical constructivism should be introduced into the Czech education, resulting in enhancement of attractiveness of the study programmes, thus increasing the level of competitiveness of the college.