‘Confusion’ prompts NUIG rebrand

The Governing Authority of NUI Galway has approved the rebranding of the institution to ‘University of Galway’ from the end of the summer.

First mooted last year, the change has come about because of confusion over the name and a lack of ‘brand recognition’.

The official name will become ‘Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, University of Galway’.

President of NUIG, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said: “The decision to rename our University is something to which we have given a lot of thought and it is a decision which is being taken following detailed assessment of the issues and comprehensive consultation and internal discussion. We are extremely grateful to everyone who engaged in that work.

“This university has been in Galway and of Galway since the mid-nineteenth century. Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, University of Galway, gives a clearer sense of who we are as an institution and of being of our place. Galway is a place of industry and creativity, of citizenship and debate.

“As a community of scholars in a community of scholarship, we will continue this long and distinguished tradition and trajectory of curiosity, this ambition for our place and from this place, as we progress our values of respect, excellence, openness and sustainability, for the public good.

“The university is proud of the role it has played in Galway’s journey to become a global city. City and university have grown together and our new name encapsulates that history and is a promise for the future,” said Prof Ó hÓgartaigh.

As reported by the Galway City Tribune last November, research showed that the 1997 rebrand from UCG to NUIG had not “maximised the potential for this university” and that another name change had been “gestating for a number of years”.

Despite Galway’s hugely positive international reputation, the university was suffering a lack of brand identity and was not to the forefront of people’s minds relative to other Irish third level institutes.

NUIG was found to be sixth of seven in a table of the most recognisable university brands in the country – marginally ahead of Maynooth and Dublin Institute of Technology – and further research showed just three in 10 surveyed respondents, when asked ‘spontaneously’ to name Irish universities, mentioned it.

“Mistaken identity” has also been an issue for the university – it was found that more than 1,000 research papers were incorrectly affiliated to the National University of Ireland (Merrion Square in Dublin) rather than NUIG.

Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh, NUIG’s Vice President, told staff at the time: “When surveys have been done nationally, Galway as a city has actually got a very strong reputation that engenders a positive reception, much more so than Cork or Limerick, for example, and second only to Dublin. But NUI Galway, especially when it is truncated to NUIG, does not have the same brand recognition, because neither Galway nor university then becomes visible in the way that we are frequently referenced.

“Internationally, whilst the Ireland brand has been arguably beneficial, and we are looking at ways in which that can still have a presence in the international market, it is not one that has played for us in the home market or necessarily in the European market. So the idea is we leverage the university brand, we leverage the city of Galway.”