University of Western Ontario changed its name to Western University

[kenchau66]

Foreigners get the two mixed up all the time. Including Americans and Canadians. I've seen in happen.

Foreigners get Koreans and Filipinos mixed up all the time. Including Americans and Canadians. I've seen [in] happen.

[funnykid]

Just curious: To those of you who are insisting that Western should be investing more on research, faculty, and teaching, are they sacrificing these areas when pursuing their rebranding? I thought Western just made headlines with the first FDA-approved HIV vaccine. If they are purusing both academic excellence and rebranding simultaneously, what's the big problem? Wouldn't you rather have the rebrand happen BEFORE big new discoveries are recognized so that the new name is what is reported in major media outlets instead of the old one?

[enhanced]

You should read the second part to my response before reading this one.

Renowned schools can have generic names such as Columbia and Oxford because nobody would confuse them with other institutions. I believe that the recognition of a school's academic reputation and its brand name are highly positively correlated and function concurrently. And if one of them changes, in this case the brand name, the reputation will go down with it or starts fresh. However, Western is trying to achieve this renown status by changing its name rather than focusing on things that have made schools like Columbia and Oxford famous (faculty hiring, research etc.). In other words, I think Western is trying to take the easy way out. Moreover, I think Western's case is distinguishable from Columbia/Oxford because Western as a name is much more generic than Columbia/Oxford, but this is inherently subjective.

This is just my opinion now.

I think the probable confusion among the masses is going to play a significant role in how people perceive Western. It seems like the absence of confusion is necessary for the re-branding to work. In other words, if people are confused about Western with another institution, then they can't achieve the objective for their re-branding, which is international recognition (LSAT you know this, this is just for the other people reading). The reason being people may affiliate Western with lower ranked institutions, thus lowering their reputation/recognition. An example of this would be Penn and Penn State, when most people say they go to Penn, the immediate following question is "Penn State?". Admittedly, there is no objective evidence to ascertain whether this makes a difference in Penn's reputation, but I personally think it does. Since Western is such a generic name, I believe the people external to Ontario, notwithstanding the even more probable and heightened confusion on the international stage, would most likely be confused with "Western". Therefore, I don't think their re-branding will work.

Alternatively, I think Western should focus their efforts more on research, faculty hiring, international marketing etc. like all the other renowned institutions have done rather than re-branding an already nationally well-known name in order to attempt to achieve their international recognition objective.

Reputation and brand name definitely work together but I think it's very far fetched to think that a slight rebranding will render the university's achievements/reputation/prestige for over a century moot. It isn't as if they chose a new word to rebrand with; they simply chose to rebrand with the name that the majority of people refer to them by anyways. If anyone does have the "hey, where or what is Western University?" moment, it will tide over once the initial transition period is over. Basically, give it a few months or even a year and everyone will know Western University is the University of Western Ontario -- that is, if they even knew about UWO at all.

As for the suitability of the word "Western" as a viable brand name, I don't see at all a problem with it. You mention confusion but I really don't understand what they could be confused with. High-schoolers and Canadians in general won't be (and if they are, again, give it some time) so we'll address the international crowd and I fail to see it here as well. I am curious on which mainstream institution in the world the name "Western University" can be confused with? Which lower ranked institution would they be confused with to the degree Penn and Penn State are? Are you saying that recognition for the word "Western" as in "hey, I go to Western" is difficult for recognition because it's too generic of a term, therefore causing confusion? If so, we've already established that the word is only as strong as the brand and even if you consider Western's brand too weak internationally to brand themselves with a generic name, they gotta start somewhere.

Like funnykid mentioned, when would the a good time for them to adopt the new name? It certainly wouldn't be after they have established themselves because that would absolutely confuse everyone and devalue their new moniker. If you think long term (which is what they are doing), like into a few centuries from now, then rebranding sooner is much better than later. Like I said, in the year 2090 or 2150 with decades of hearing the name "Western", it will be synonymous with this institution if they continue to improve their image.

And this finally brings me to your point about them "taking the easy way out". Like funnykid pretty much covers, what gave you the assumption that rebranding precludes Western from focusing on research, hiring and academic excellence? That focusing on one requires sacrificing the other? No one said that their purpose for the name change was to achieve instant renowned status without any other commitments. The rebrand is just a single element in their overall continuous strive for world recognition supported by research, faculty hiring etc. Like the word that I've used many times through these responses, the notion of "long term" is key here and is one that was emphasized in Western's press release about the change.

This is step one of many steps.

[vaportrails]

It's called Western now because of the Time Zone they're in.

Wait..

[Jyeatbvg69]

lmfao...admin are idiots. Do they know what slang or short-form is?

in b4 Wilfrid Laurier University renames to Laurier University
in b4 Dalhousie renames to Dal
in b4 Ryerson renames to Rye-High

Honestly, Western University doesn't sound good at all and IMO doesn't make the university more international.

[Jyeatbvg69]

[epiphano]

I am curious on which mainstream institution in the world the name "Western University" can be confused with?

Northwestern perhaps?

[nauru]

Well there's these:

Western University
Western University
University Canada West
Western International University
Western University of Health Sciences

Wikipedia disambiguation for Western University