The paper outlines the history of the different uses of 'quality' in higher education. Emphasis is given to the United Kingdom, but consideration is also given to a range of international contexts. Three different uses of 'academic quality' are identified (the state-driven, sector-derived, and the traditional academic uses) and their relationship to fundamentally different priorities, values, criteria, purposes and practices is established. The notion of a concept as it applies in the paper is then explained before four alternatives to the thought that there is more than one concept of academic quality are evaluated and ultimately rejected. It is argued that those different uses of 'academic quality' are not minor changes in emphasis, but fundamentally different uses of the words rooted in different concepts of academic quality with different implications for measurement and/or evaluation. The identification of those three concepts of academic quality is then put to use in critically analysing the current situation in relation to quality in higher education, involving discussion of the implications of the operation of different concepts of academic quality and reflection on how we might revise our approach to thinking about academic quality as a result.