Built to Change

Brand Identity

Messages for Target Audiences

Three strategic narratives are central to RUB’s communications:

1. Our value to society as an expert in change
2. Our competitive edge in attracting talent and the next generation
3. Our resilience and our shared sense of unity

Our Brand

To describe our brand, we use Simon Sinek’s “Golden Circle” communication model. It poses three fundamental questions to describe an institution’s brand essence, brand building blocks, and brand performance: Why, How, and What. For Ruhr University, we answer these questions as follows:

Why?

The “Why” answers the question about the RUB’s overarching goal.

Change Through Science

• Ruhr University views science as a force for change. It generates knowledge and educates people who can understand and shape complex transformation processes.
• This capacity for change is an integral part of Ruhr University’s history and identity. As a reform university and the first new university founded in the Federal Republic of Germany, it emerged in a region undergoing profound change and played a key role in shaping its transformation from a mining region into a knowledge-based region.
• Its vision for the future is built on this experience: As part of the Ruhr Knowledge Region, RUB aims to develop and leverage its academic strengths to provide solutions to complex transformation challenges and help shape change far beyond the region.

How?

The “how” describes the characteristics and methods used to achieve the higher goal.

Impact Through Diversity and Networking

1. Diversity
   The RUB is shaped by one of the most diverse regions in Europe. Here, different social, cultural, and academic perspectives come together as a matter of course. This diversity fosters an open culture in which new perspectives emerge and change can happen more quickly.
2. Networking
   The RUB brings together diverse disciplines, perspectives, and areas of expertise on one large campus—and further connects them with its partners within the Ruhr region, Europe’s most densely concentrated research region. This fosters new connections and, at the same time, creates the critical mass needed to tackle complex challenges.
3. Impact-Oriented Approach
   The RUB is closely intertwined with business, culture, politics, and society in one of Europe’s most densely populated metropolitan regions. The Ruhr region has thus become a real-world laboratory for transformation. New insights and solutions can be developed in collaboration with societal partners, tested under real-world conditions, and put into practice. This fosters innovation and value creation through co-creation with the academic community.

What?

The “What” highlights the brand’s concrete proof of performance.

Implementation Through Concrete Actions

• Structure: The RUB is one of the largest and most diverse universities in Germany. On its compact campus, it brings together 21 faculties, approximately 200 degree programs, just under 37,000 students, and about 6,500 employees.
• Research: The RUB has continued to expand its research profile and currently has two Clusters of Excellence and 11 Collaborative Research Centers. Key areas of focus include IT security, green chemistry, neuroscience, and materials science.
• Transfer: When it comes to knowledge transfer and research-based spin-offs, RUB ranks among the very best in Germany. Numerous spin-offs and the Mark 51°7 Innovation Campus at the former Opel site are impressive testament to the transformative power of Ruhr University Bochum.
• Academic Studies and Teaching: Students at RUB benefit in two ways. They are directly involved in research, which allows them to develop problem-solving skills at the highest academic level. At the same time, they are closely connected to professional practice and, through programs unique in Germany, acquire additional key competencies for the workforce of tomorrow.