Two headlines in today’s newspaper: the Royal wedding in the UK, and the unfortunate findings of the inspection of education with several applied sciences schools (HBO) in The Netherlands. No apparent link, of course, or it must be that there is much ado about…eh…. something. My colleague Bart Straatman has a television set in his office. The broadcast sounds of the wedding ceremony are an unusual background chorus in this otherwise quiet corner of the University. We also have more people sauntering up and down the corridors than on normal Fridays: the ceremony has universal appeal. I wonder what’s going on in the offices of our HBO colleagues, and whether they have time for a quick glance at the world out there. The inspection ruled that several curricula do not meet the relevant quality criteria and that worrying percentages of students have appeared to have graduated on unjustified grounds. No doubt this will lead to increased scrutiny and political debates about the wisdom of allowing autonomy of governance. This highlights the importance of regularly going through the motions of self-assessment, accreditation and independent external verification of objective quality criteria. Although these activities seemingly create undesirable bureaucracy, they are vital to be demonstrably in control and to uphold the quality and reputation of the institution.