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The purpose of this article is to outline how motivation of first year university students can be enhanced through effective pedagogic practices and to discuss policy level decisions that impact upon the cultivation of student motivation. It reports on practices within a specific first year unit, Understanding University Learning, which successfully incorporates teaching and learning strategies to enhance academic motivation.If we are to believe our own hyperbole about the commitment of universities to creating independent learners who exhibit a range of desirable graduate attributes then first year learning experiences become critical. Getting the first year experience right entails embedding within it the desirable skills and behaviours we want our graduates to have. Through creating and implementing a first year pedagogy that addresses issues of motivation in order to transform the learning characteristics of students they will arguably become less 'assistance needy' in their second, third and fourth years of study. Students are increasingly disinclined to engage in university activities beyond their study requirements because of an initial propensity to study for extrinsic rather than intrinsic purposes, and because of an increasing shift in the perception of tertiary institutions as 'user pays' service providers.

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