The Death of Merit: How Metrics Replaced Judgment in Higher Education

This essay argues that the crisis of meritocracy in late modern academia is not simply a matter of rising grades or changing metrics, but the consequence of a deeper structural transformation: the replacement of paideia—the formation of judgment and character—with a bureaucratic epistemology built on quantification, efficiency, and scale. Drawing on empirical research on grade inflation, departmental incentive structures, and the dynamics identified by the classic Sabot studies, the article shows how students and professors rationally adapt their behaviour to a metric-driven environment, producing a self-reinforcing cycle of inflation and diminished standards. Yet the central question is not whether grades have risen, but what grades—and academic standards more broadly—are meant to measure. Against the dominance of procedural metrics such as rankings, impact factors, and standardized outputs, the essay recovers an older vision of education grounded in virtue, discernment, and (self-)knowledge. It acknowledges the sociological difficulty of restoring paideia within massified and technologized institutions shaped by institutional isomorphism, yet argues that renewal remains possible through communities of learning oriented toward wisdom rather than production. Drawing on the Mercy tradition and its commitment to spirituality, community, and the dignity of the person, the essay proposes a postmetric university in which judgment, mentorship, and formation—not quantification—serve as the true standards of academic excellence.