if they were to follow the chinese model, would that mean the university based down in edgbaston & bournbrooke would become birmingham normal university ?

To be honest i am surprised it got through now without opposition by Brum Uni (i hear that Tidmarsh got assurance beforehand there would not be any opposition before he submitted the name to the Privy Council) but times change.

The UCE Birmingham rebrand was a mistake and gave us a name and logo that looked like we made computer consumables or something.

I remember it used to be known as The University of Central England in Birmingham. They obviously did want to let people know it was in Birmingham although it was a bit of a mouthful.

Then it got changed to UCE Birmingham. Here’s a bit of inside info: They didn’t like this name because it didn’t include the word ‘University.’

Suddenly, they renamed it to something that included the words ‘University’ and ‘Birmingham.’

Hence UB might not have been best pleased with the creation of a Birmingham Chamberlain University.

Birmingham Skinner University anyone?

That’s just it, the full name is too long to use and the individual parts are difficult to use alone without confusion. People in Brum will end up calling it City University (which despite the nice repeating ‘word’ isn’t going to help recognition).

It’ll be interesting to see how it develops. I hope whoever is monitoring the change let’s us in on how it goes six-months down the line.

@bounder – Ha. For a moment I thought you were going to suggest that Birmingham University would come out all guns blazing on the possible ‘passing off’ and rebrand themselves as Birmingham It’s Not City University in a nod to your fine work! :-)

I love the way the equally non-descript ‘BCU’ acronym has effortlessly replaced ‘UCE’

Don’t even get me started on Southampton Solent University…

Can anyone confirm the rumour that Aston Uni and Birmingham Uni insisted that UCE had to be UCE in the first place, (allegedly) precisely because it was a bit of a kludge?

That might have been me referring to the Southampton Polly / Uni situation on the BiNS Blog but I do wonder what Birmingham Edgbaston Uni (as it will have to be called) think of this.

And as for the recent website redesign – my thoughts exactly. Here’s hoping it’s nice a modular and they can simply swap the new logo in.

bcu.ac.uk seems to be offline right now.

what does the new logo look like most (at http://www.bcu.ac.uk)?

a)The Premier League logo
b)Peugeot
c)a pub sign

answers on a postcard kids

The options were:

Birmingham City University
Birmingham Metropolitan University
Birmingham [insert name of historical founding figure, possibly Chamberlain] University

I’d have probably gone for Birmingham Met.

The change is apparently tied in with difficulty in marketing themselves abroad: “UCE” not really being that informative and “The University of Central England in Birmingham” hardly rolling off the tongue.

Can anyone confirm the rumour that Aston Uni and Birmingham Uni insisted that UCE had to be UCE in the first place, (allegedly) precisely because it was a bit of a kludge?

Apparently I will be issued with a new degree certificate with the new university name on it. Which is nice.

Research shows that universities that have the name of their location in their title are more easily recognised and remembered by potential applicants, increasing their ability to recruit able and committed students. It is equally important to graduates when they are seeking employment or promotion, as high recognition enhances the value of students’ awards. Birmingham has enjoyed a huge renaissance since the early 1990’s, transforming itself from a traditional manufacturing centre to a thriving cosmopolitan hub at the heart of a city-region. It makes sense, therefore, to feature the name of the city of Birmingham much more prominently in the University’s title.

Turns out at the UCE’s full name was University of Central England in Birmingham. Who knew?

ahem…

It’s a silly idea for promotion when it comes to search engine ranking and the like. Every search that isn’t in quotes on google will reveal University of Birmingham stuff, Council stuff, Blues stuff. It’ll cause more confusion that it solves I bet.

Get it? Kick-off …?!

(Please forgive the dad joke – it is Friday after all.)

Surely they already have Aston Uni though?