The number of students who enrol in Master's programmes has significantly increased in recent years; however, their learning motivations have not been adequately investigated, especially those from developing countries. This article reports a two-phased study that investigated Vietnamese students' learning motivations for attending Master's programmes. Qualitative content analysis of 10 open-ended questionnaires as well as exploratory factor analysis of 202 survey responses showed that students were inspired by 14 learning motivations related to employment, knowledge and skills, new adventure and some miscellaneous motivations. Independent samples T-tests results indicated significant differences in the learning motivations between student groups with different age ranges, work experience, nature of their work, targeted Master's programme (local or international) and sources of funding of their studies. The study also found that their learning motivations were closely related to the Confucian educational and cultural values. This article discusses implications for curriculum development and pedagogical practice for effective Master's programmes.