Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance a classification of satisfactory and unsatisfactory critical incidents of student-university relationships at German universities. Design/methodology/approach: Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), this paper reports the results of an exploratory study of 15 tertiary education students at three German universities. Findings: Participants perceive satisfaction and dissatisfaction stemming primarily from their courses of study, their interactions with faculty, and their perceptions of administrative and student services. Research limitations/implications: The sample was small, dominated by female participants, and the recollection of past events is assumed to be accurate. Practical implications: University administrators should consider creating institutional environments that ensure the responsiveness and engagement of faculty, the assessment of student perceptions of their university experience, and the improvement of administrative and student services to aid the satisfaction of students. Originality/value: The CIT method allows participants to express what matters most to them in their university experience rather than following researcher-generated questions, which tends to be the norm in traditional studies on the university student experience. Given that this study was conducted in Germany with German students, it highlights a different understanding of satisfaction that counters the dominant western-focused research on this topic.