Decision making is becoming more complex for prospective university students, in both the Global North and Global South. This study explored motivating information and knowledge for students’ decision making on programmes to undertake at the university level in Tanzania. The study followed a descriptive design which mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore how information and knowledge helped freshers at the University of Dar es Salaam in making decisions regarding programmes to pursue. The principal finding of the study reveals that extrinsic motivating information and knowledge influence the decision of more students than intrinsic motivating factors. The findings further inform that sources of extrinsic motivating information and knowledge are diverse. According to the findings, students’ rational decision making is undermined by the lack of professional and career development programmes. To empower students with the ability to make rational decisions, the introduction of career and professional programmes in secondary schools is necessary.

对于全球北部和全球南部的潜在大学生而言，决策制定变得越来越复杂。这项研究探索了激励性的信息和知识，以帮助学生做出在坦桑尼亚大学层次上计划的决策。该研究遵循描述性设计，该设计结合了定性和定量方法，以探索信息和知识如何帮助达累斯萨拉姆大学的应届生就所从事的课程做出决策。该研究的主要发现表明，与内在动机因素相比，外在动机信息和知识影响更多学生的决策。这些发现进一步表明，外部激励信息和知识的来源是多种多样的。根据调查结果，缺乏专业和职业发展计划会损害学生的理性决策。为了使学生有能力做出理性的决定，有必要在中学中引入职业和专业课程。