The paper is dealing with the threat towards university standards in Sweden, when the university system is facing a decreasing demand on education. We claim that there is a pressure towards higher grades and less working load on the students. The effect could be a slight decline of prestige for universities, but a step decline in academic standards at the university colleges since they have weaker academic traditions, staff and students, and experience a stronger political pressure from the local community. The reasoning is made with resonance from a case describing experiences from an accounting programme produced at a university college.