Vic is the popular name for the Victoria University of Wellington. Students there will tell you that they are studying at Vic.
Now the university council wants to change its name to the University of Wellington. Why? Because there are many other Victoria universities around the world, like Victoria University in British Colombia, Canada. Australia has two Victoria Universities, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne which is in the state of Victoria. The council says this makes it confusing for international students. The name “Victoria” is not surprising because it is named after Queen Victoria who was Queen of the British Empire at the time many of these universities were established.
The decision is being challenged by many past and present staff and students. They say there are many other universities called Wellington so there could still be confusion. It would be expensive to change the name. The logo would need to be changed. Stationery with that logo would have to be destroyed. And what about marketing the name overseas? All previous marketing materials and the website would have to be changed.
The Minister of Education will have the final say on the matter but meanwhile there is strong opposition to any change.
Vocabulary
• British Empire – countries which were colonised by Britain, now called the Commonwealth
• confuse (v) – to make it difficult for people to understand; confusing (adj), confusion (n)
• stationery (n) – paper, pamphlets etc
• logo (n) – small design used on top of page as a symbol of a business
• to have the final say (idiom) – to make the final decision
Grammar
would need to be/ have to be changed/ destroyed. This is a difficult structure to use but perhaps not so difficult to understand. Think of adding “if” – if there is a change, these things would need to happen
“would” is a conditional; have to be / need to be + past participle is passive because the person doing it is not mentioned, the action is what is important
The active form is: the university would have to / need to destroy / change (if this happens)
When the change of name is decided, “will” replaces “would” – will need to / have to be