The issue of quality in higher education has been a staple of conversation for centuries. In the current environment, this conversation is complex, involving many constituents and, at times, contentious. To explore and address the central question of quality, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has initiated a "National Quality Dialogue," a series of national and regional meetings, interviews with key leaders in higher education and a research and publications series. The Dialogue involves a framing and exploring of academic quality in relation to the future of higher education and accreditation. Both higher education and accreditation are currently subject to unprecedented public scrutiny and pressures to change. Public scrutiny of the success of higher education has intensified and comes from many quarters: media, government, students, research and policy centers and foundations. Higher education is diversifying, with emerging new types of providers and credentialing of educational experiences, beyond traditional, degree-granting colleges and universities. Emerging diversification includes a dynamic and changing student population, alternative approaches to teaching and learning and variation in how higher education is structured and operates. This paper briefly explores five major national quality conversations, offering descriptions of the thinking of five significant actors in the quality space: (1) higher education and accreditation, (2) research and policy institutes and foundations, (3) alternative providers (and alternative credentials), (4) the federal government and (5) employers. The intent is to make clear the essential thrust of thinking in each of the conversations and what drives them. The conversations are not mutually exclusive. Although they differ in some key respects, they are similar in a number of instances. This paper asks the following questions: (1) What can be learned that strengthens quality in higher education; (2) Where might the conversations lead going forward; and (3) What role might accreditation play? Developing a future dialogue on quality involves acknowledgment of the similarities in each of these conversations, as well as how each differs from the other.