Deaf students at two institutions of higher education and hearing students taking the same degree programmes completed the Course Experience Questionnaire and a short version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory. The deaf students were just as likely as the hearing students to adopt a meaning orientation to their studies but were more likely to adopt a reproducing orientation. This was particularly true of those deaf students who preferred to communicate through sign language. However, the deaf students evaluated their programmes just as positively as did the hearing students. It is concluded that deafness per se has no impact on students' perceptions of academic quality, and that deafness and perceptions of academic quality are mutually independent determinants of approaches to studying in higher education. (Contains 9 tables.)