Universities, as one of the formal education institutions, are required to prepare their students to become human beings to reach the expected national education goal. The goal of education is to produce people who agree with and concern God Almighty and have a noble spirit, maintain knowledge and abilities, which are bodily and mentally healthy, have a strong and independent character and control a feeling of social and national responsibility. Additionally, graduates of Higher Education are expected to be able to fill the need for the availability of experts and professionals at various levels and types of abilities. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to determine the effect of academic services toward the cadets learning motivation at the shipping science polytechnic of Makassar. The approach used in the study is an explanatory survey with a population of 1,407 cadets of Politeknik Ilmu Pelayaran (PIP) Makassar with a sample of 281 selected by using proportional random sampling technique. The data were collected using observation, questionnaires, and documentation and then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study showed that the academic services are influential to the cadets' learning motivation at the Shipping Science Polytechnic of Makassar.