Over the past fifteen years the rationale, organisational infrastructure and delivery of social policy in Britain have undergone radical transformation. Whereas efficiency was the key word of the 1980s, quality was the touchstone of the 1990s and quality control with accountability has become the management philosophy of the new millennium. Increased pressure for greater accountability in the use of public funds, together with changes to the structure and funding of higher education, were designed to increase competition for students and subsequent resources. This has provided the initial thrust for increasing the profile of quality issues than in the past. The difficulty is that there is much confusion about the definition of quality and this leads to problems in assessing it. Many academics would argue that quality has always been high on their agenda and the government motivation is simply another element of control to change the focus away from a government policy that led to massification without the necessary injection of resources. Blame has to be levelled so why not at the already overworked, under resourced and demotivated academics?