University buildings require maintenance to create a suitable environment that supports and stimulates learning, teaching and innovation. This article is concerned with identifying, evaluating and categorizing the criteria of the university building users' value systems. The criteria of the user value system or VALUCRITE are those that are taken into account while making decisions on maintenance management to enhance user satisfaction. For this purpose, this article reviews the related literature and presents the outcome of a questionnaire survey. Questionnaires were administered to 550 university building users in Malaysia. Twelve criteria were addressed to the respondents measured on a five-point continuum scale. With 87 per cent response rate and a cumulative mean score of 4.0516, six of the criteria have an individual mean score more than the cumulative mean score. The data were both satisfactorily reliable and valid. A multiple regression analysis performed revealed that collectively the 12 criteria can significantly explain user satisfaction (F (12 439)33.576; < 0.05) Therefore, the criteria can actually be used as screened criteria to ensure users' optimum performance with the maintenance service of university buildings. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.