This paper investigates gender differences in students' approaches to learning in higher education. Previous studies have found some evidence for gender differences, but interpretation of these findings has been problematic given arange of methodological limitations including poor response rates and the inappropriate use of univariate statistical analyses. The Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 1987) and the abbreviated Approaches to Study Inventory (Entwistle, 1981) were both administered to two samples of first yearpsychology students. R,esponse rates of98 percent and 61 percent were achieved, and results were analysed using multivariate procedures. No gender differences were found on the equivalent deep, surface or achieving scales with either instrument. Significant correlations between the deep, surface and achieving scales of the SPQ and AS1 were found, suggesting that both are measuring similar constructs.How people approach learning, that is, the relative emphasis they give to the understanding of concepts or the reproduction of facts, and how they organise their Learning environment (Ramsden, 1992), has been a long-standing and important area of inquiry in higher education. Research has consistently identified three approaches to adult learning, labelled most commonly as deep, surface and achieving. A deep level approach refers to an active orientation to the learning task characterised by a search for meaning, a focus on the content as a whole and attempts to see the interrelationship between different parts (Biggs, 1987). By contrast, a surface approach is characterised by extrinsic motivation, a focus on elements rather than the task as a whole, and the application of rote learning strategies (Biggs, 1992). An achieving or strategic approach is characterised by a highly organised approach to study and high achievement motivation (Watkins, 1982).Until recently there has been little systematic investigation into gender differences in approaches to learning in higher education. Investigations have typically taken the form of quantitative measurement of approaches to learning using either the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) (Biggs, 1979) or the Approaches to Study Inventory (ASI) (Entwistle, Hanley & Hounsell, 1979). Both instruments measure the three major dimensions of deep, surface and achieving approaches to learning. The SPQ, derived from the theoretical and empirical literature defining the 'personal qualities' judged to be important to academic learning, measures approaches to learning in terms of subscales reflecting the student's motives and strategies on each of the three major dimensions. The ASI, derived from