Quality has been a theme in discussions around higher education since the 1980s, and since then it has never lost its topicality. There are persistent tensions in the processes to assure quality that every higher education system must contend with once it introduces policies for quality assurance or accreditation. We want to discuss these tensions—perhaps even unsolvable dilemmas— in relation to the question which quality or qualities higher education needs to achieve in the future: what is needed for students and for researchers in the next decades towards ‘net-zero’ societies? How can higher education fulfil its social role to contribute to a sustainable society, at the same time protecting academic freedom and critical thinking as core values of an open society, and as preconditions for its own continued functioning?
