Students’ motivation and their academic performance. A study on Romanian and Moldovan pupils

Laura Diaconu (Maxim) & Andrei Maxim, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, ID LLCE2017-119;         Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to analyse the way in which Romanian and Moldovan students’ motivations of choosing a certain faculty and field of study can influence their academic performance and personal fulfilment. To reach this objective, we have conducted a survey, based on a questionnaire, on 192 students from different fields of study from Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, ‘Al. I. Cuza’ University of Iasi, Romania. The conclusions of our study show that the Romanian students which were assigned to that field of study they chose have higher academic performances compared to those that didn’t succeed to get into the desired field, due to their lower faculty admission grades. Yet, in the case of the students from the last situation, girls have higher grades than boys, they are more satisfied with what they are studying and they feel more fulfilled. These results were different in the case of the students coming from Republic of Moldova. Even if they didn’t succeed to get into the desired field of study, they have the same performances or even higher than those which have succeeded. In their case, there were no significant differences between boys and girls.      

Key words:  students’ motivation, academic performance, field of study, personal fulfilment, Romanian students, Moldovan students