A large number of countries worldwide have established quality assurance mechanisms in Higher Education, ranging from the long‐engrained system (United States) to more recent developments in Europe, Latin America and other regions. This study explores the way Higher Education institutions, as examples of autonomous organisations, respond to a new set of regulatory policies. The analysis of the regulatees shows that university‐wide administration has gone beyond the letter of required regulations, toward over‐compliance. Far from a stereotype of a main external regulator (accreditation agency) trying to impose the stated regulations and the regulatee simply resisting, the latter adds a kind of self‐regulation. Below the university‐wide administration, at the programme level—the primary regulatee target of external regulators—matters take more typical, anticipated form. Mixed compliance characterises programme‐level responses, including resistance strategies. Findings illuminate not only the Argentine case but also other countries that have established quality assurance agencies.
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