Purpose: The paper examined the mediating effect of meaningfulness of study on the relation between self-efficacy and academic programme satisfaction within higher education setup. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 376 randomly selected students took part in the study by completing a self-reported survey. Data were analysed using PLS-SEM. Findings: Results suggest self-efficacy and meaningfulness of studies positively predict student's satisfaction with academic programme. Besides, meaningfulness of study mediates the relation between self-efficacy and student's satisfaction of academic programme. Originality/value: This study is one of the first to provide empirical evidence of the influence of meaningfulness of studies on self-efficacy and student academic programme satisfaction in the higher education context.