Proudly Wellington’s university
Changing the name of Victoria University honours the vision of its founders to support prosperity in the capital city, argues vicechancellor Grant Guilford.
Great cities have great universities that share their name. This common bond results in the achievements of the one building the reputation of the other. But not in Wellington. Wellington’s university is divided from its city by colonial politics that saw it originally named Victoria University College of the University of New Zealand. As a result, the achievements of this wonderful university are usually attributed to ‘‘Victoria’’, not ‘‘Wellington’’.
Our graduates typically refer to themselves as studying at Vic or Victoria, not in Wellington. The university’s world-leading research and creative outputs are usually reported by media worldwide as being from Victoria University – again with no reference to Wellington.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people in the world do not associate the words Victoria University with Wellington, or with this university. There is no intuitive geographical link for them to do so, and there are other Victoria universities in the world to which our work can be mistakenly attributed.
Each time this happens is a lost opportunity to build the international standing of our city and university.
It is a small but significant betrayal of the vision of our founder, Robert Stout, to create a public university to support the development and future prosperity of Wellington and the broader region.
This is not the first time this problem has been recognised. The current proposal to name the university the University of Wellington has been recommended at least four times by university leaders since the 1950s, and once by Stout in 1887 with his failed Wellington University College Bill.
A persistent driver of these naming attempts has been the strong desire of staff to better align with and support our city and region. The counter-arguments have been similarly tenacious – pride in the word Victoria, suspicion about a hidden anti-colonial agenda and, sadly, insufficient confidence in Wellington and its place in the world.
It is now time for Wellington’s university – including its alumni – to demonstrate pride and confidence in our city and region. It is time to stop hiding on the hill in Kelburn behind a different name. We are New Zealand’s globally ranked capital city university. We need to act like it. We are of this city, not just in it. That is what the university signed up to in its strategic plan when we recommitted to Stout’s original vision of a civic university.
And, yes, this change will require investment. But it will also be the catalyst for very significant additional offshore revenue that will more than exceed the costs incurred. Universities are autonomous organisations responsible for earning their way in the world, and reinvesting all revenues in their teaching, research and student support. Our financial sustainability – let alone our ambition to be one of the great global-civic universities – cannot be achieved on the meagre resources available from domestic tuition subsidies and fees.
To assure our future, we must build an even greater global reputation that attracts international students, research revenue and philanthropy. And to do that, we must have a distinctive name that stands on its own in the 100 countries from which we recruit our staff and students, and in which our graduates work. That name has to be the University of Wellington. It is authentic and explicitly links us to our wonderful city.
Names matter. They give shape to our aspirations and give form to our future. However, let’s be clear – the only thing we are proposing to change is one word in the university’s legal name. The university as a legal entity continues without pause, its role in society is unchanged, and our proud legacy is not rewritten.
In the words of one of our alumni, drawing on Shakespeare – the past is prologue, but not the final word. The time has come for the university to unequivocally demonstrate its pride in Wellington.