In Europe, national quality assurance systems of higher education have begun to be established. In Finland, this development has had the consequence of forcing universities to take notice of assessment procedures. However, little is known about the procedures taking place in individual academic departments as a result of this pan-European trend. This article describes how academics currently comprehend quality assessment, paying particular attention to self-evaluations and quality assurance systems. Altogether, the paper casts light on how academics are responding to the increasing university assessment activities. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)