Students in higher education have to develop two types of expertise; t
he first refers to the mastery they want to acquire within a well defi
ned occupational or disciplinary domain; the second relates to the dee
p level learning needed to achieve that mastery as an expert student o
r studax. Research has indicated that in solving a problem any expert
simultaneously has to draw on four types of knowledge. Where the perso
nal organisation of these four leads to effectiveness, this brings abo
ut the quintessence of expertise - experiencing problem solving behavi
our as intrinsically motivating, or rewarding in itself. This intrinsi
c motivation integrates experiences of competence (through declarative
knowledge), causality (through procedural knowledge), creativity (thr
ough situational knowledge) and self regulation (through strategic kno
wledge). The same will then necessarily hold for the student who prove
s, by experiencing this very same effectiveness, to be the studax or d
eep level learner higher education needs. This paper describes a theor
y - shudaxology - which explains to the student, on the basis of what
is being experienced while studying, how to become organized as a pers
on within the study environment, so as to succeed in the required task
. Studaxology's core is a 3 x 3 matrix of study experiences, based on
that number of sources of variance, empirically identified by means of
factor analysis of Likert-type items in study inventories. Its centra
l experience of intrinsic motivation brings together four pairs of com
plementary experiences (ability vs. difficulty, effort vs. relevance,
intention vs. demand and time perspective vs. discipline), with each p
air constituting a basic component of intrinsic motivation, and as suc
h reflecting a specific form of metacognitive knowledge. Adequate inte
rpretation and use of the 3 x 3 scores on a similar study inventory en
able the studax effectively to meet deep level learning that optimal f
unctioning in higher education demands. Factor analyses of students ev
aluations of lecturing behaviours can also be fitted into a 3 x 3 matr
ix equivalent to that of the studax. It is argued from these analyses
that the essential prerequisites for achieving studaxological expertis
e stem from an appropriate initial vocational choice (which will help
to produce an internally well-cohering 3 x 3 matrix of experiences) an
d are further enhanced by an equivalent matrix of lecturing behaviours
designed to support students' own study experiences.