This article focuses on the impact of research and education evaluation on two universities: Trento State University (Italy) and the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). The article adopts a system approach to evaluation and proposes a model to describe and analyse evaluation systems. The analysis has been carried out by means of in-depth interviews with key decision-makers involved in the two universities. The analysis shows that many of the differences in impact can be linked to the different "evaluation stages" the universities are currently in; the Italian university experiencing a number of novel effects, with the Dutch university reaping the benefits (and experiencing some problems) of having institutionalized evaluation practices. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)