The study is a first validity study investigating the psychometric properties of the Danish translation of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation subscales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire in a higher education context. Rasch family measurement models were employed emphasizing unidimensionality, local independence of items, and differential item functioning (DIF). The sample consisted of three consecutive year-cohorts of BA psychology students in a second semester course on personality psychology (N = 590). Results showed Intrinsic Motivation (IM) and Extrinsic Motivation (EM) to be separate subscales, weakly and negatively correlated. Neither subscale fit the pure Rasch model, but departures could be adjusted for in graphical loglinear Rasch models (GLLRMs): the IM fit a GLLRM adjusted for age-DIF on one item and local dependence between two items; the EM fit a GLLRM with local dependence between two items. Targeting of the subscales was good. Reliability was good for the EM subscale and, for the oldest students, on the IM subscale. Failure to adjust the IM score for the DIF discovered would lead to a Type I error, and future research should address this issue, as the other studies located showed (possibly spurious) age differences in the same direction as the unadjusted results in this study.