This article identifies those aspects of the academic environment that are associated with graduates' overall satisfaction with their higher education (HE) course. We use REFLEX data, which allow comparison among 14 European countries, based on a pooled sample and individual country regressions. Overall, the degree of satisfaction with HE studies appears to be driven to a great extent by the academic environment. The results also confirm the persistence of country-specific traits in different HE systems. This substantial variation among European countries in terms of learning environment may have an influence on subsequent employment experience. While some systems encourage independent learning through participation in research projects, others rely heavily on direct teaching as the main source of information. (Contains 6 tables and 1 note.)