Learning English can be very challenging in Indonesia because English is not used as a daily communication language. In fact, Indonesia belongs to the expanding circle country which means that English is learned as a foreign language. When the students are struggling to learn English, it can make them demotivated. The aim of this research was to investigate the demotivating factors experienced by the students of higher education in learning English as a foreign language and it was only focused on external factors. This research used descriptive qualitative design. This research was conducted at English Language Education Departments at one of private universities in Yogyakarta and there were five participants who were involved in this research. Those participants were selected on certain criteria, namely: the students were demonstrated poor concentration, the students attended to the class rarely, and the students were unwilling to cooperate in learning which means that they did not join in doing the group work. In addition, an interview was employed by the researcher as the instrument to gather the data. There are seven findings that the researcher found in this research related to the demotivating factors. They are inadequate university facilities, old version textbook, lecturer’s personality, teaching method, and integrity, classroom rules, classmates’ behavior, inappropriate class meeting schedule, and learning environment.