PurposeThis paper aims to identify: university students' perceived service quality dimensions; the dimensions contributing most towards overall students' perceived service quality; and whether there is a difference in perceived quality level of each dimension based on students' year of study and gender in the context of undergraduate students of state universities in Indonesia.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a quantitative approach through a survey method. The respondents of this study are 155 state university students from two state universities in Indonesia. Both multiple regression analysis and t‐test analysis are used to analyze the data.FindingsResearch results show that there are seven perceived service quality dimensions considered important to university students, i.e. curriculum, facilities, contact personnel, social activities, education counselors, assessment, and instruction medium. The perceived service quality dimensions contributing most towards overall perceived service quality of a state university is facilities. Furthermore, the research also shows that university students with a different study period have a different perceived quality level on the social activities dimension, while university students with different gender have a different perceived quality level on two dimensions, i.e. social activities and facilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was only conducted at two universities in the same geographic area and at a single point of time. Hence, there is a need for further research in terms of a longitudinal study with different geographic samples in order to generalize the research result.Practical implicationsThe students' perceived quality dimensions resulting from this research can be used by universities to measure their performance according to students' perspectives. As a result, feedback will be gained by the university, so that the university can identify its weaknesses.Originality/valueThe research was conducted in a developing country context, while most previous research has been conducted in developed country contexts. This research also provides a new insight into quality management, since the university objects are state universities, not private universities. The paper also takes students' personal characteristics (gender and year of study) variables into account.