Motivation is an important component for learning that deserves a thorough study from theories, techniques and strategies that enhance the acquisition of comprehensive knowledge for students, considering their individual and sociocultural characteristics. The objective of the research was to infer the importance of motivation and its implications in students’ learning. Methodologically, the sociocritical paradigm was assumed, qualitative approach under hermeneutic analysis design, executed by reviewing 80 articles, purifying 51 in Scopus database and other high impact databases, under criteria of thematic relevance and timeliness. The results reflect the need to reevaluate the motivation to channel the learning achievement of university students with positive attitude, active, committed, persistent, transcendent, and communicative in a personal and interpersonal way, competent in self-managing their cognitive and socioeconomic development, and from the teaching perspective in assuming motivating didactics for the achievement of such purpose. The present research in university education concluded on the need of motivation for the development of more specific competencies demanded by today’s society and that should be investigated given the continuous challenges that education faces. © Licencia de Creative Commons Atribución 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es