Previous surveys of university academic reading generally employed questionnaires and fell short of an in-depth analysis of students' skill needs and difficulties. Taking a qualitative approach, the current study interviewed 22 undergraduates and 7 language teachers from a New Zealand university. Together the participants highlighted a number of skill and knowledge areas that were considered both critical and challenging. They also articulated both the reasons behind those needs and the possible causes of specific challenges, revealing the interactive relationships among different variables in shaping those needs and challenges. These findings depict a more contextualized and elaborate picture of university students' skill needs and challenges in academic reading as compared with previous findings. Implications of the findings for both research and practice are also discussed in the paper.