Previous research has concluded that it is quite common among higher education students to adopt a surface approach to their learning. To better understand how this phenomenon can be countered, this study of 19 business students at a Swedish university aimed at identifying qualities in the learning environments that may contribute to provoke such a surface approach. The results point to three types of learning environment uncertainty that students may experience, due to how such environments tend to frustrate one or more of their basic psychological needs to feel autonomous, competent, and related. And importantly, we find that adopting a surface approach to learning constitutes an important strategy for reducing or handling such experienced uncertainty.