The article examines accreditation as a component of the Bologna Process quality policy. The focus is on an analysis of the concept of accreditation in policy documents from four countries (Finland, the Netherlands, France and Sweden). The article focuses on the following questions:• How does accreditation appear, as a concept and as action, in national reports, produced for the purposes of the Ministerial meetings? • How is accreditation presented, as a concept and as action, in the national context and for national actors?

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This article analyses Finnish higher education institutions' reception of the implementation of the new quality assurance systems that governments participating in the Bologna Process have committed to establishing in the Berlin Communiqué (2003). The data was collected using a websurvey, and the respondents were classified with a cluster analysis.The reception was more positive in the polytechnics than in the research universities, and women were more positive than men. People working in managerial positions were most positive about, and committed to, quality assurance. Most critical were young researchers in research universities working in temporary jobs. Some opinions were so strongly shared that respondents with short work experience expressed their opinions, even though they could not have personal experience of the topic in question. In some topics, respondents without personal experience, but having a critical attitude tended to give their opinion, whereas those with neutral attitude rather abstained from commenting.

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