Customer satisfaction has long been recognized as a central concept of all business activities. Satisfaction can serve as an indicator of success of the company, both in the past and present, as well as an indicator of future performance. High quality service to students is a prerequisite of maintaining competitiveness in the market of higher education. A relationship that is created between the expectations of students and their satisfaction with the quality of service that provides educational institution plays an important role in shaping the reputation of academic institutions. Academic institutions are becoming aware of the importance of student satisfaction, because satisfaction positively influences their decision to continue their education at this institution, and the positive word of mouth that will attract prospective students. Satisfaction will affect student motivation, and therefore their performance. This paper provides insight into the marketing aspects of customer satisfaction, primarily insight into the satisfaction of students in the educational sector. It also offers an overview of the state of higher education system in the European Union and the Republic of Croatia. The aim is to establish the influence of satisfaction various factors related to the university and higher education to the satisfaction of student life, and does student life satisfaction affectson overall happiness and student performance. The research was conducted on the student population of the University of Split, on a sample of 191 respondents. The research was conducted with the help of online survey questionnaire. The results confirmed that the students satisfaction with university contents, university bodies and services, teaching, teaching methods and academic reputation affects the satisfaction of student life and student life satisfaction on student performance. The claim that students satisfaction with housing affects on satisfaction with the quality of student life is rejected.