This paper analyses to what extent mechanisms of quality control and results-based financing hinder innovative programmes. Focusing on one precise example, the paper will demonstrate how bureaucratic schemes that prioritise the production of evidence of compliance force higher education institution (HEIs) to adapt their internationalization programmes to government policy requirements as a matter of routine, and to pay less attention to meaningful activities such as knowledge production and the development of networks. Because of the conditions of its implementation, internationalization has become merely instrumental and limited in scope, which weakens its sustainability. The question of how to internationalize such that programmes of mobility, exchange, joint research, networks, and collaborative degrees incentivize projects of institutional development, innovation, and social responsibility, has become a secondary concern.