Recent evidence suggests that the majority of the adult population fails to achieve the recommended target of 30-minutes moderate intensity exercise, days a week. This includes university students who often have the time to engage in physical activity. The aim of this study was to determine exercise motives for a UK-based student population. The motives of 736 participants (± 20.45 years of age, SD = 3.50) regarding participation or non-participation in free-time exercise, sport and physical activity were measured using the Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 (EMI-2). Significant main effects were reported for age (P = 0.1) and gender (P = 0.1). Students over 23 years of age reported higher levels of motivation than the other age groups (i.e. for stress, revitalisation and avoidance of ill health). The results of this study indicate that the motivation of UK university students to engage in physical activity or exercise demonstrates gender and age differences. These findings should enable health professionals and health educators in university environments to design preventative programmes aimed at reducing multiple risk behaviours among university populations. These could include gender-specific exercise programmes underpinned by appearance motives for female university populations.