While external quality assurance in higher education was originally developed to cater for various domestic needs, recent decades have seen various attempts in the use of quality assurance also as a mechanism for creating more trust in cross-national higher education activities. In this article, a conceptual framework for analysing available trust-building mechanisms in higher education is presented, and it is discussed how the different mechanisms identified impact the current development in international quality assurance. The article further discusses how the current dynamics in the international quality assurance area could be interpreted and concludes by pointing to future pathways for building trust in this area.