In the quest to identify the key indicators of student satisfaction in Higher Education (HE) the authors have developed a model that encapsulated this experience. This model is a work in progress and is predominantly drawn from the literature available. The model has been broken down into sub-sets to isolate the different sectors of the HE experience. The goal is to test the relative importance of all these characteristics for students, when they make their decisions about their level of educational satisfaction. Most student satisfaction surveys are developed by academics, but this research focuses on the characteristics that students in the property and construction disciplines within Australia, believe are important to them. The components of the HE experience are many and varied and before developing a questionnaire to examine student satisfaction, the authors must ensure they have captured the relevant criteria within the model. To this end the model will be tested on students in focus groups to ensure that it represents a broad student view of a HE experience and forms a picture of what is important to them in their educational journey.