University acquisitions usually have two main reasons or characteristics. Firstly, they may be related to the absorption of universities (large versus small) and, secondly, to the growth, expansion or positioning of these institutions. To determine its main characteristics and describe these processes in detail, the research proposes – as an analysis tool – the implementation of mixed research methods, whose main objective is to analyse in detail what are the causes that led higher education institutions to the implementation of These processes, their characteristics and importance, what has been the role of the state, international private groups and accreditation and quality assurance systems? Based on information from primary and secondary sources, articles from scientific and written press, reports and information from institutional websites are analysed, the result of which reflects that these processes are carried out for various reasons (commercial, financing, quality, political), being, in most cases, problems related to quality and institutional management.