The last few years have witnessed a deep transformation in Universities. Such a process has been the consequence of the process of convergence into the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). One of the main axis of this transformation has been the focus on quality. Students, employers, companies, teachers, University personnel and society as a whole demand a quality higher education.

“Quality” is a very wide concept, a term with different meanings depending on the reference framework of reference: it ranges from the assurance of quality to its evaluation, accreditation, certification, audit or management.

Official agencies and institutions are focusing their current efforts on quality assurance and evaluation. In Spain, the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) has, among others, carried the following activities out: Accreditation, institutional assessment, evaluation of degrees and postgraduate programmes, university services evaluation, etc.

On one hand, we have to consider whether evaluation and accreditation have become themselves the purpose of all this work. Are we sidetracking from what is really important? Wasn’t it our aim to achieve a continuous improvement and satisfaction of the parts involved, and an efficient, effective management of our resources? We consider quality evaluation as a part of the integral cycle of quality management, and not an aim in itself.

On the other hand, one can’t help but notice all efforts are being put on the evaluation of teaching processes (assessing the quality of degrees/postgraduate and Phd programmes) and on research. But what about the structure that supports the University itself? Shouldn’t academic and management services improve their quality?

The aim of this paper is to show the experience of implementing a quality management system (QMS) in several central services from the University of Valencia. In order to understand how the QMS has been implemented, the case study approach has been used. It provides lessons learned for future projects.

Keywords: Quality Management System, University Services, Quality at Higher Education.