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NEWS
Branding backlash
As‘ UWS’ becomes‘ WSU’, student council sees red over new logo, cost of marketing.
By Andrew Bracey
The University of Western Sydney has formally announced its rebranding as‘ Western Sydney University’. The announcement, made at the university’ s Parramatta campus earlier this month, followed strong criticism from students after the plan was leaked ahead of its official launch date.
The previous logo – featuring a blue V-shaped bird design – will be replaced by a red shield brandished with the letter W.
Vice-chancellor Barney Glover defended the consultation process and long-term strategy behind the move.
Glover said Western Sydney’ s development and rate of population growth – the area is projected to make up about a quarter of the nation’ s total population within the next 25 years – made this the right time to“ re-evaluate how we talk about the university”. He also said there was a need to seize the“ opportunity to reinforce our leadership role within the region”.
“ Our values haven’ t changed, but like every forward-looking organisation, we are conscious of the need to continually evolve,” Glover said.
The leaked rebrand came under attack from the university’ s Student Representative Council. President Jarrod Bradley complained that students had been left out of the process entirely and that the university risked losing its identity.
Writing on the council’ s Facebook page, Bradley was also highly critical of the cost of the rebranding, saying the millions of dollars invested in the transformation and related marketing could have been better spent expanding scholarship programs or improving courses and raising staff levels.“ I have been informed that the UWS board of trustees has set aside $ 20 million over the next two years for marketing alone. I’ m sure a lot of that will go into this rebranding,” Bradley wrote.“ This is very concerning to myself and my fellow students. Being from a low-SES background, which is common amongst the students of UWS – especially those hailing from [ greater western Sydney ] – I believe these funds could’ ve been used in a much more effective way.”
In another post the UWS student council published, a student identified as Sinead wrote:“ The branding that we have, is a symbol of how many students are the first ones in their family to get a degree( which includes me) and many students who are from a lower-economic-status background.” Meanwhile, an online petition seeking
Photo: Vice-chancellor professor Barney Glover( centre). Credit: Sally Tsoutas
to retain the university’ s current logo and branding had attracted almost 2500 signatures at the time of press.
However, Glover told Campus Review that the project was two years in the making and that the university had consulted with students, as well as other stakeholders, including staff and the broader community.
“ Whenever you change your logo and your name and various other things as an institution or an organisation, there are always going to be challenges and we’ ve had some negative responses from some students and some staff. That’ s to be accepted and expected because people are passionate about this university,” Glover said.“ I’ m pleased that there’ s been a passionate response but overwhelmingly, the response that I’ ve received from inside the university and from external stakeholders we’ ve been briefing … has been very positive.”
Glover also responded to criticisms over the cost. He said in comparison to similar marketing exercises at other institutions, the university’ s investment – which he said equated to a little more than 1 per cent of its total budget for the next three years – was reasonably modest. This budget was also expected to cover the marketing of courses and programs at a cost of“ less than $ 10 million a year”, he said.
“ Under the demand-driven system, we’ re all competing to attract students to our institutions. Investment in marketing and the promotion of our courses is vitally important and sensible.”
The university’ s new branding and identity are due to come into effect from August 30. ■
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