Fashion is easily understood as something to do with style and consumption. However, the concept of fashion can also be applied when organisations and the change in them is analysed and explained. Universities and their departments adopt different kinds of policy fashions. This article approaches management by results and evaluation in the Finnish context as fashions and success stories which universities and their departments have either accepted or rejected. Fashions and reactions to them have created new practices and cultures, and simultaneously either displaced the old practices or taken their place with them. Fashions are further translated into local action at universities and their departments.