Universities in Germany are required by law to present a concept for ‘safeguarding’ the quality of their teaching, scientific research and administration. The aim of this imposed ‘quality assurance’—which universities worldwide, in one way or another, undergo—is to hold higher education institutions accountable for their performance management in relation to their postulated impact on a state’s economy and on other sectors, such as democratic citizenship. However, what scholarly and academic quality is in concrete terms and how it can be ensured, what qualifications are required of the evaluators, and which social groups within the university (administrators, academic stuff, students) are to be held accountable for what, is precariously undefined. In this article, with the focus on the quality of academic education, the suggestion will be made that a more precise definition of such quality depends on the respective professional forms of action to be evaluated. A research on practices within the Educational Sciences is suitable for finding out the different forms of action in the field of higher education.