This paper is an attempt to provide some possible reasons why students lack motivation to learn English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at three Lithuanian educational institutions: Vilnius University (VU), Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) and International School of Law and Business (ISLB). 97 full-time students from different study programmes took part in the research: Mathematics, Information Technologies (VU), Tourism and Hotel Administration, Visual Communication (ISLB), Social Work, Communication and Creative Industries, and Psychology (MRU). The questions to determine the level of motivation were compiled based on motivation researcher’s Zoltán Dörnyei’s book Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom (2001). Zoltán Dörnyei groups the factors influencing students’ motivation to learn into three levels: learner level, language level (culture and community) and learning situation level. In this research it was decided to find out how timetable, marks, oral evaluations, difficult tasks, other people, knowledge from school encourage or discourage the respondents to study. Based on the results lecturers can try to alter their behaviour and activities in the classroom so that students do not lose their motivation in the course of studies. The results do not reveal any major differences among the two universities (VU and MRU) and one university of applied sciences (ISLB). Students are less motivated if they do not see clearly how they can apply their knowledge and skills in the future or are discouraged from learning by weaker knowledge brought from school.