Improving Ratings: Audit in the British University System
Strathern — 'when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure'
Work
1997 essay generalising Goodhart's observation to audit metrics and accountability culture.
Strathern, M. (1997). ‘Improving ratings’: audit in the British University system. European Review, 5(3), 305–321.
Generalised aphorism
Strathern’s widely quoted line:
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
She presents this as Goodhart’s law in the sense Hoskin (1996) had already popularised — extending Charles Goodhart’s 1975 monetary-policy observation to audit and ratings in universities. The mechanism: once a metric (examination class, research rating) is wired to reward and reputation, actors optimise the metric, and its discriminative and epistemic value degrades.
What we cite
- Popular wording — use this reference when citing the one-line form.
- Attribution — credit Strathern for the aphorism; credit Goodhart for the 1975 statistical-regularity origin (goodhart1975-problems-monetary-management).