The article presents which conceptions of higher education quality are most acceptable to first-year students of the study field of pedagogy. It is significant to analyse students' opinions as more than 10 years ago the EU member states agreed that higher education institutions bear responsibility for the quality of higher education. Being members of an academic community, students are also an important integral part of this process. There is a lack of research that would focus on which conception of higher education quality students believe to be the most acceptable to them. Respondents (students of the study field of pedagogy) are currently important actors in the system of higher education quality assurance and once they become teachers, they will be an important part of the system of teaching quality assurance. The article introduces the following conceptions of higher education quality: 1) quality as improvement; 2) quality as excellence; 3) quality as transformation; 4) quality as conformance to set requirements, norms and criteria; 5) quality as fulfilment and/or exceeding clients'/consumers' needs; 6) quality as fitness for purpose; 7) quality as value for money. An empirical research conducted in 2012 and 2013 helped to identify which conceptions of higher education quality are most appropriate to the first-year students from the study field of pedagogy. 326 first-year students from three Lithuanian higher education institutions participated in the research. The research revealed that the two most acceptable conceptions of higher education quality to first-year students of the field of pedagogy are quality as continuous improvement and quality as excellence.