The developments of joint study programmes and their quality practice in the European Higher Education Area are studied. Such programmes are subject to the environment of institutional complexity. Guided by a multi-level approach and the institutional work framework of analysis, the research demonstrates how a particular quality practice is co-created and maintained by the means of policy work, inter-organisational cooperation and everyday work. The relational nature of quality practice is driven by a recursive interaction of processes, events and activities at macro-meso-micro levels. The joint programme quality practice is tied to the concept of fitness-for-purpose with focus on value-added and innovation. The situated nature of quality work is explicated through the empirical account of day-to-day activities and the practical-evaluative agency of joint programme staff. The idealised value of 'jointness' in curriculum integration and joint degree award, and quality evaluation culture are addressed with organisational adaptations in a cross-border context.