Universal Journal of Educational Research 9(3): 683-692, 2021 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090328 The Role of Goal Orientation and Epistemological Beliefs in Intrinsic Motivation among International Engineering Students Abderrahim Benlahcene 1 , Tahira Anwar Lashari 2 , Sana Anwar Lashari 3,4,* , Muhammad Waleed Shehzad 5 1 School of Education and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Sintok, 06010, Malaysia 2 School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Pakistan 3 School of Applied Psychology, Social Work and Policy, Sintok, 06010 Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia 4 Riphah Institute of Clinical & Professional Psychology, Riphah International University, QIE Campus Lahore, Pakistan 5 Department of English, Foundation University Islamabad (FUI), Islamabad, Pakistan Received April 9, 2020; Revised December 19, 2020; Accepted January 20, 2021 Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles (a): [1] Abderrahim Benlahcene, Tahira Anwar Lashari, Sana Anwar Lashari, Muhammad Waleed Shehzad , "The Role of Goal Orientation and Epistemological Beliefs in Intrinsic Motivation among International Engineering Students," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 683- 692, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090328. (b): Abderrahim Benlahcene, Tahira Anwar Lashari, Sana Anwar Lashari, Muhammad Waleed Shehzad (2021). The Role of Goal Orientation and Epistemological Beliefs in Intrinsic Motivation among International Engineering Students. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 9(3), 683 - 692. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090328. Copyright©2021 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Many studies have examined separately the impacts of goal orientations and epistemological beliefs on intrinsic motivation; however, they have not investigated the two concepts in combination to examine their interrelationships with intrinsic motivation. Using Self-Determination theory, this study utilized a cross-sectional research design involving 338 international engineering students who were selected by multistage sampling. Data were analyzed through SPSS v.23. Results of the correlation analysis revealed a significant association between goal orientation and intrinsic motivation. However, associations with epistemological beliefs were found to be insignificant. Moreover, multiple regressions revealed that goal orientations were found to be the only and the main predictor constructs that accounts for variance in intrinsic motivation. The results of this research provide support for a growing body of evidence regarding the positive outcomes of goal orientation adoption among the students. The findings can be used by educational instructors to offer and establish the optimal learning environment by the inclusion of interesting and enjoyable activities, along with helping students to foster their intrinsic motivation by setting optimal and realistic goals during their academic activities in the university phase. Keywords Goal Orientation, Epistemological Beliefs, Intrinsic Motivation, Self-determination Theory, International Engineering Students 1. Introduction Engineers are some of the most challenging job positions for employers to fill. In the past twenty years, the number of graduates in engineering has decreased despite various endeavors to expand enrolments in this field (Alias, Lashari, Akasah, & Kesot, 2014; Benlahcene, Lashari, & Lashari, 2017). One of the greatest challenges that educators face is finding effective ways to increase the number of engineering graduates such as preventing the associated etiology, and enhancing and fully understanding the factors that empower persistence among engineering students (Hernandez et al., 2014; Esa, Padi, & Hassan, 2015). Retention in the engineering educational curriculum does not ensure persistence into the career life of engineering (Ibrahim, DeMiranda, Lashari, & Siller, 2017). To address this issue, researchers have suggested numerous