Evolving our brand

The need to stand out

We may be consistently ranked among the world’s top 10 universities, but research has shown that our story doesn’t always cut through. In other words, our brand “lacked distinction”.

Brand tracking carried out between 2020 and 2023 among prospective students in key countries also highlighted the need to be bolder and better at standing out from the crowd, and communicating how we break boundaries.

On top of that, the 2022 UCL Strategic Plan consultation identified a gap in how we see our brand with how others perceive us externally. While a poll commissioned in the same year identified that only half of Londoners say they have at least “some” knowledge of UCL (with most of those admitting it’s ‘a little’ rather than ‘a lot’).

In summary, all research showed the UCL brand lagging behind UK competitors such as Cambridge, Manchester and Imperial. Despite our strengths, we were struggling to stand out in the global marketplace compared with other London Russell Group universities.

Widening our research

Until this point, our research had mostly focussed on prospective students. So in 2023, we commissioned a more holistic approach, incorporating insights from different audiences and stakeholders across the world.

It involved extensive quantitative and qualitative research, including:

• Online surveys sent to over 5,500 people in 25 countries
• 20 focus groups with 215 internal and external participants
• 53 interviews

UCL academics also supported the research, sharing their expertise on questionnaire design, topic guide development, results assessment and interpretation.

Online survey results

During the summer of 2023, we sent a survey about perceptions of UCL to academics, employers, and parents of future university students in 25 countries, as well as to prospective students, international recruitment agents, and school counsellors.

External audiences

4,500 individuals in over 25 countries completed the external survey, across four groups: academics, parents, student counsellors/advisers, and employers.

The findings showed that audiences:

• Do know about UCL, with academics more familiar with UCL than parents and employers
• Strongly associate UCL with University College London
• Consistently associate UCL with three of our current brand statements: “London’s Global University,” “A powerful community,” “An intellectual powerhouse”
• Describe UCL as being modern and inclusive
• Associate UCL as ‘‘Producing world-class graduates ready for tomorrow’s workplaces’’.

Internal community

1,024 individuals from the UCL community completed the survey across three key groups: academic and professional staff, alumni community, postgraduate students.

The findings showed that:

• Our community associates UCL with two of our brand statements: ‘‘London’s Global University’’ and “Interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research”
• Our staff associated UCL with “Disruptive thinking since 1826”
• All audiences think of UCL as being Prestigious and Progressive; all bar prospective students selected Inclusive; all bar staff selected Modern
• Our community associates UCL as “Pioneering research of the highest international standard”.

Focus groups and interviews

To understand how UCL is valued and how engaged our stakeholders are, we held interviews and focus groups throughout October and November 2023 with over 215 internal and external participants.

We interviewed a further 53 community partners, school counsellors and international recruitment agents, government and higher education policy advisors, funding organisations and trusts, alumni, donors, business, academic research partnerships, key academics, and media stakeholders.

The interviews and focus groups explored in more detail the themes and questions that arose from the earlier quantitative research, such as:

• What are the defining qualities of UCL?
• Should we be called UCL or University College London?
• How do we balance the need to be ‘modern’ versus ‘tradition and heritage’?
• How should we leverage ‘London’s Global University’?
• Does the message ‘Disruptive Thinkers since 1826’ still resonate?
• How do we celebrate our ‘foundational values?
• How do we visualise and articulate the many UCL brands?

Qualitative results

The key takeaways were that:

• The UCL experience is what makes it stand out, along with our depth and breadth of excellence in all areas.
• The short form name ‘UCL’ is well-known amongst core audiences, however outside of London and across media the long form of University College London should be used alongside UCL.
• We should continue to celebrate being ‘London’s Global University’ but aim to include modern imagery of London as a community and narrate our global networks of research and engagement.
• By telling the story about how we are solving future global challenges we can bring people together in a common goal; we can lead the way.
• The Portico imagery interweaved through our brand echoes tradition and heritage and needs reviewing through a modern lens.
• The ‘Disruptive Thinkers since 1826’ strapline is no longer resonating with our stakeholders.
• We should focus on how we live our ‘founding values’ through our present actions rather than highlighting stories that are no longer groundbreaking.
• UCL is an eco-system comprising many stellar faculties, departments, and institutions, we should aim to have a strong umbrella brand that captures the diversity of our success through our narrative and position.

Sentiment Brand Tracking

From October 2022 to September 2023, we also conducted comprehensive “social listening” research, to help us understand UCL’s public perception and reputation.

This research found that:

• Positive drivers of conversation celebrated the university, its staff and students, and its research, from A-level students gaining a place at UCL, to faculty achieving promotions and awards.
• Negative conversation was driven by controversies (often around academic freedom and gender debates), protests and strikes, and public reaction to UCL research relating to topical issues.
• UCL had the highest share of voice among UK peers, with Harvard having the largest number of mentions among international peers. Positive and negative drivers of conversation were similar across peer institutions.

These conversations about UCL were then aligned against our five previous brand pillars:

1. The Intellectual Powerhouse brand pillar had the highest alignment, with 72% of the brand pillars conversation. Key themes related to UCL’s rankings, ground-breaking health research projects, and cutting-edge facilities at UCL East.
2. Courageous Attitude was driven by revolutionary research.
3. Real-world Impact was driven by key research projects across health, sustainability, and education, alongside volunteering initiatives.
4. Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Research was driven by key research collaborations and partnerships with peers, public and third-sector organisations and industry.
5. Key themes in the Powerful Community pillar were pride in UCL’s diverse and global community.