The Dutch Universities are at present confronted with a reduction of means and a still increasing number of students. In this situation the need for planning and planning instruments arises. This paper gives a brief description of the planning model now used within the University of Utrecht. This planning model has a marked preference for the teaching process and does not determine independently the need and the consequent resources required with regard to the other tasks of the University. To describe the teaching programmes the method of curriculum-outlines is developed. A curriculum-outline is a representation of a teaching programme or a part of it, which enables us both to compare the organisations of the teaching programmes of the various fields of study and to determine the teaching load of the academic staff. First this method is used to discuss the organisation of the teaching programmes on the university management level and between this university level and the faculty management level. Second this method is used for allocation of academic and non-academic staff. Some figures of the results of this method within the University of Utrecht are given. In the last section of this paper some future developments in the planning at the University of Utrecht are briefly discussed. Titel - Student satisfaction survey: the Utrecht University approach Tijdschrift - Tertiary education and management, Volume: 12, Issue: 4 (December 1, 2006), pp: 323-328 Auteurs - Möller, O. ISSN - 13583883 Full text - http://omega.library.uu.nl/cgi-bin/journal/springerft?doi=10.1007/s11233-006-9009-0 Abstract - Abstract Increasing attention on quality assurance, a decentralisation of responsibilities and need for quantitative data in accountability and decision support led to the development of a student satisfaction monitoring instrument at Utrecht University (UU). Initially marketing worked as a catalyst activity to prove the added value. At a later stage the instrument was brought under the responsibility of the Institutional Research department. The instrument is now supporting planning and control, institutional policy, quality assurance and marketing. In order to achieve optimal effects of the instrument, commitment from both the board of the university and the heads of department proved essential.