How do the constituencies in higher education re-interpret Bologna's function with regard to the European Higher Education Area? This research examines how institutional actors re-construct the policy framework in the light of their own institutional agendas. Drawing on empirical data from a survey of academics, students and administrative and management staff this article focuses on the processes of mediation. It examines how at institutional level actors perceived Bologna whilst themselves being in the midst of Bologna's on-going policy dynamic. It dissects the tensions between macro political processes and the role status and function of the different constituencies and sheds new light on the role played at the institutional level by the three estates in re-interpreting the Bologna Declaration whilst adopting the reforms it introduces.