This article focuses on the relationship between higher education, employability of graduates and students’ satisfaction with their studies. The article draws on European statistics, as well as on data collected at national and/or institutional level in Portugal and Sweden. Employability has been understood as a measure of higher education quality and one of the issues at stake within the Bologna process. The authors discuss if ‘Bologna’ makes a difference regarding graduate employability and students’ satisfaction with their studies, and how the differences between the countries can be understood.