With an aim to understand the impact of a variety of space usage on the building energy consumption in university campuses, this study selected 122 university buildings located in subtropical Australia and collected their weekly electricity data and detailed space use information. Two hundred and two descriptors were used to describe the usage of each room in the studied buildings and thirty most influential descriptors were selected through factor screening. Multiple linear regression models were established to link energy use and space use. The results showed that wet laboratories use a large amount of energy because of their energy-intensive equipment and high requirement of mechanical ventilation. Health is the most energy-intensive discipline as it has more wet laboratories than others. Although research dedicated buildings have the highest energy use intensity, increasing research space alone does not lead to a significant increase of building energy consumption, while increasing teaching space has a greater energy impact. Due to the complex space use of a higher educational building, it is difficult to sub-meter its energy use; this study provides useful spatial descriptors and statistical models for the study of energy use in higher educational buildings.