The objective is to identify the motives behind any potential differences between the students who favor of private versus public higher education institutions. Students at public and private higher education institutions in the Czech Republic participated in the research from 2022 to 2023. The focus of the literature review, in accordance with Maslow's pyramid of needs, is on students' motivation to study. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews form the foundation of the qualitative research investigation's approach. Purposive sampling was used to choose the research sample. Open coding was implemented to create data systematization for qualitative analysis. The results demonstrate differences in study motives of students attending public and private universities. Additionally, differences between responders in the same group of public and private university students were found. A few components also show up in multiple categories. In order to continue the research in the next years and to discover changes in the elements investigated over a longer length of time, it builds on the research of the previous period 2021–2022, and we concentrated on the same topics.