Plans to rename Ireland’s oldest university have led to a backlash by many tenured academics.
The proposed name change of ‘Trinity College Dublin’ to ‘Trinity College, the University of Dublin’ will be voted on by the College Board in their next meeting.
A three page letter has been sent to Provost Dr Paddy Prendergast by Fellows of the college voicing their objection to the name change.
Within the letter the Fellows voiced their concerns that the change could have a detrimental effect on international university rankings and feel ‘Trinity College Dublin’ already possesses a strong brand identity that a name change could damage.
Earlier in the year the college hired market research firm Behaviour and Attitudes to produce a report entitled ‘TCD Identity Initiative’.
The survey carried out by Behaviour and Attitudes found that the vast majority of students and academic staff were strongly opposed to the proposed name change. However many did admit that they felt Trinity could be perceived as ‘snobbish and elitist’ and did not believe that Trinity was a modern University.
Dr Prendergast commented last November: “Ireland knows Trinity College is a university but do people in Shanghai know that?”
One goal of the TCD Identity Initiative is to attract students from Non-EU students who contribute up to €40,000 in fees and a are valuable source of income for Trinity.
Ian Coyne
Image Credit: Wikicommons
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