The purpose of this study is to analyze the kind of motivation in academia at a university in Argentina, taken as an example of a Latin American country. The study used a questionnaire containing the same 37 attitudinal statements that At-Twaijri et al. used recently for a large university in the Arabian Gulf. Motivators in both universities are compared. Despite being two very different academic cultures, there are analogies between the responses of lecturers: financial rewards are the least motivator in both cases; the most important items affecting the university professors’ motivation deal with the internal reward along with a feeling of accomplishment in the Argentine, and self-achievement and social respect in the Arabian Gulf. This paper also serves to make the international academic community aware of the Spanish ‘Intercampus’ programme. This programme allows the interchange of a significant number of students and professors between universities of Spain and the Latin American community.