This paper is based on the hypothesis that the notions of teaching quality used in the higher education sector have a political nature; in other words, they may describe the approaches agents take as regards the duties they perform in institutions of higher education or the model of governance those institutions should adopt. This paper uses the statements academics have made through a survey to describe the prevailing attitudes in Spain's public universities and assess the influence that certain sociodemographic variables may have on the academics' preferred options.