The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of how tourism and hospitality students learn and how they develop their approaches to learning in a self-financed college. The study investigates whether there is a change in students' approaches to learning as they progress through their programmes of study. Data were collected on student approaches to learning at four points: the initial entry to their associate degree programmes, the second year of study (associate degree), the beginning of the first semester of their degree programmes (top-up degree) and the final year of the same programmes.