Abstract

This paper examines students’ motivations to attend guest lectures and comprehends the factors that influence students’ attendance of guest lectures across three popular disciplines. Qualitative data was collected by conducting focus groups across three disciplines to generate themes. A quantitative method questionnaire pertaining to the themes was prepared on a five-point Likert scale. The factor analysis of the themes resulted in three factors: Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude. The ANOVA results indicate that knowledge is considered the most important factor across all the disciplines. Skills improvement is the main motivation for medical and pharmacy students to attend guest lectures. Attitude improvement is a key reason for management, medical, and pharmacy students to attend guest lectures. This study helps academics to understand the relative importance of knowledge, skills, and attitude in conducting guest lectures for students in management, pharmacy, and engineering. The study is the first of its kind within the context of higher education to examine the factors that determine the motivation levels of students to attend guest lectures. Its findings are likely to assist the administration of Indian higher education institutions in formulating and designing their pedagogy around guest lectures and to ensure the success of those lectures.