What is needed to make an Erasmus+-funded collaboration project work? The creation of a programme for higher education students funded by Erasmus+ would require a common foundation in EU frameworks, European values as well as the articulation of shared academic values. One example is proof of student achievement in the form of micro-credentials, badges, credits and these may signal different things. Badges and micro-credentials are more common in less formal learning situations, whereas the use of credits imply an adherence to the Bologna process within the academic course system and ECTS accreditation. Beneath the EU framework for higher education, and the conceptions of academic excellence in line with Svallfors and Bexell, lie the often undisclosed adherence to universal academic traditions and values. However, in the development of a programme for higher education students in a project funded by Erasmus+, it became evident that there was a lack of shared conceptual understanding among the partners. A common knowledge base regarding course and programme development and a unified approach to course design did not exist. Trust eroded. In this presentation and by drawing on fictionalised examples from the collaboration through the lens of Bourdieu’s symbolic capital, our aim is to explore the intentional metamorphoses required to find common ground, those needed to enact agency for the sake of upholding academic values in European higher education collaborations, as well as those needed to make the decision to walk away when meaningful collaboration breaks down.