This paper presents the findings of a national survey of student satisfaction with undergraduate teaching in a sample of universities and colleges in China. The results show that while a high proportion of academic staff participates in undergraduate teaching, levels of student satisfaction are low. The lowest levels of student satisfaction are found in research-intensive universities. The study concludes that the main causes of this situation are: a shortage of well-qualified academic staff; the pressure on academic staff to focus their time on research output; policies and practices that emphasize research-orientation in the evaluation of academic staff performance; and poor support for teaching in terms of both support staff and teaching facilities.