Staff oppose bid to change abbreviation of Queen Mary University of London

QMUL hoodies on sale on campus

Plans to change the abbreviation of Queen Mary University of London from QMUL to QML have been cancelled following talks with staff.

The University spent two weeks drawing responses from 15 per cent of staff at the college, the “majority” of whom were in favour of retaining the QMUL abbreviation.

Principal Simon Gaskell explained in a letter to staff in March that the switch had generated a “good deal of comment,” and as such decided to delay the transition.

He added that staff would get to contribute their views to the “ largely collegial” discussion.

The £47,000 switch was initially planned for completion by December 2014, with the main costs arising in technical alterations, such as changing email addresses and the website domain name.

Though the college insists that no costs have been incurred as of yet, QML merchandise has already been stocked and remains on sale in campus shops.

Tania Rhodes-Taylor, Queen Mary’s director of marketing and communications, explained: “While the validity of the original research stands, which indicated that QMUL was rarely used or associated with Queen Mary of London outside of the university, it is not possible to implement a change of this nature without the full support of the Queen Mary community and it has therefore been decided to halt the change.

She added: “Further efforts will be made across Queen Mary to encourage external parties to consistently adopt QMUL as the shorthand version of our name and progress towards this will be initially reviewed after a 12 month period.”