The purpose of this study was to ascertain the attitudes of academic staff towards their own work as well as towards external evaluations. The study was based on (1) an analysis of assessment reports of institutional accreditations conducted by the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education and (2) self-determination theory on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The satisfaction of academic staff with their own teaching and research competencies was measured and links among the following attitudes were analysed: sense of competence, intrinsic motivation for research, attitudes towards assessment of students and towards external evaluations. The results indicate that a correlation between attitudes towards work and towards external evaluation exists and that the attitudes of academic staff at universities and professional higher education institutions differ. The study involved 252 academic staff members and showed that competent and intrinsically motivated people perceive external evaluation more positively, thus supporting self-determination theory.