Following national adaptations to the Bologna-declaration, accreditation is increasingly becoming the most dominant form of quality assurance of higher education in Europe. Over the last decade, national authorities have set up both institutional and programme accreditation procedures, currently accompanied by a growing number of private accreditation schemes. By comparing a random set of public and private, specialist and generic accreditation schemes in higher education, the article discusses the added value of accreditation in the governance of higher education, and the possible effects of an emerging "accreditation market".