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This paper examines a range of policy issues which concern the quality assurance of higher education by regulatory bodies. There is widespread consensus that the benefits of at least some forms of external quality assurance of higher education exceed the costs. Important issues regarding the manner in which such quality assurance should be conducted are: self-regulation; the use of independent ratings agencies; the role of the courts; the establishment of a government agency; and the public funding of private quality assurance bodies. This paper reports on a discussion of the deficiencies of the national qualifications framework (NQF) approach. It argues that the emphasis placed on the development of a NQF in several systems of educational quality assurance is misplaced: a NQF cannot embrace the complexity of contemporary qualifications systems.