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User:Philtweir/Academic Communities

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This page is a working draft for an Academic Communities WikiProject - it does not yet exist!


Goals

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  • Identifying a framework from already developed articles to improve basic articles on Academic Communities
  • Providing a talking shop for common areas of interest, such as College Choirs, formal dining, to improve coverage across the board
  • Engaging editors who are familiar with the relevant topics
  • As articles about less well-known colleges often enjoy moderately high view rates, but are often stubs or proportionally undermaintained, reducing the effects of vandalism and misinformation
  • Conversely, as highly developed articles may deal with standard subject matter inconsistently, providing links between articles to assist editors in identifying beneficial approaches employed in other mature articles.

Scope

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Wanting to add a college?

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If your zooming past, this WikiProject does include

  • constituent colleges of a collegiate university
  • Oxbridge model colleges[1] (i.e. Oxford colleges, Cambridge colleges and 'Oxbridge-style' colleges)
  • otherwise, historical colleges of this style (pre-20th century)

but not

  • anything which could be classed as a University or College (US sense)
  • dorms
  • residential colleges not otherwise fitting the above criteria
  • fraternities or sororities

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  • We will also aim to include articles whose relevance lies entirely, or predominantly, within a college, excluding biographical, choir and boat club articles, which, at least for the moment, represent a substantial number of articles that may be dealt with effectively elsewhere, each being notable in at least two WikiProjects and to some degree tangential here. Particularly, we do wish to include articles about buildings, quads and novel societies which derive their notability primarily from the college.

If that doesn't cover what you're looking for, read on...

Since different countries use the same words for different concepts and as a scale of grey exists, we have to use a rather lengthy definition for a relatively straightforward idea! As the meaning of "college" varies substantially internationally and as there are highly similar principles in action in continental Europe under different names, we use the following extended definition:

For this WikiProject, we use the term Academic Communities to refer to tertiary education institutions fulfilling the following criteria:

  • does not grant degrees
  • is linked to a university [is explicitly and officially affiliated to a formally-recognised degree-granting institution(s)]
  • has students [the overwhelming majority of its live-in members are members of that (or those) institutions]
  • has staff [full-time employees overseeing the management of the community]
  • has tutorials or supervisions [provides some substantial degree of academic and welfare support]
  • is (semi-)independent [runs (semi-)autonomously from the affiliated institution]
  • isn't a small House (for reasons of practicality) [significant number of residents, say, at least a few dozen]

The following may also apply:

  • independent ownership
  • existence of a fellowship (academic staff who are members or affiliates of the institution)
  • existence of a supplementary teaching programme
  • separate funding system

If the institution you reckon should be included does not match the wording of these criteria, but you feel it fits within the spirit of them, please suggest it on the talk page.

To Do

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  • Develop rating system for articles
  • Extend articles on college related activities (e.g. supervisions, formal dining)
  • Translate articles on Pavia colleges (Collegio Borromeo done) and Salamanca colegios mayores
  • Identify all relevant collegiate universities for inclusion

Articles

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Articles to include

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Please feel free to list Academic Communities-related articles here.

Collegio di Spagna at the University of Bologna

... other universities, similarly (in practice, this would likely be replaced with a standard 'new articles' section, though this directory once filled out, might still have a place somewhere) General articles

Sample Categories

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Sample Templates

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Assessment

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For the moment, articles should be graded by hand, until such time as this actually becomes a WikiProject. When sorting, please take a moment to add College-related articles to the appropriate place in the directory ("College: ARTICLE X"; for an example, see the above listing of Traditions of Trinity College, (Toronto)). For efficiency, articles assessed within the relevant university WP may be classed accordingly, provided (WPX) is added (X sub'd appropriately); for internal consistency, these may need reclassified later.

Subsidiary articles, that is, those whose significance is lent entirely by the relevant college and are not choir or boat club articles (too many!), should also be listed and assessed here.

Articles FA elsewhere should go into A.

Examples

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Please note that we are not currently performing any independent assessment; this is simply a platform on which to build recommendations for future articles or suggestions for development.

Sample Article

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Please see User:Philtweir/Academic_Communities/Sample for a potential article structure (derived from Oriel College, Oxford).

External assessments

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A

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GA

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B

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C

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Start

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Stub

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Lists

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Unrated

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Unwritten

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To sort

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References

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  1. ^ Tapper, Ted; Palfreyman, David (03 Nov 2004), "Understanding Collegiality: The Changing Oxbridge Model colleges", Tertiary Education and Management, Springer Netherlands {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Discussion

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Copied from User:Philtweir/WikiProject Residential Colleges

I would support either a WikiProject or a task force, although you'll need to make it abundantly clear that these are only residential colleges based on the Oxbridge model, rather than the American usage. Otherwise, this project/taskforce will be inundated by non-notable articles about residence halls. Perhaps naming the project "WikiProject Independent residential colleges" or "WikiProject Residential colleges (Oxbridge model)" would be in order. -Mabeenot (talk) 20:14, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Yep, thank you for the input! That sounds sensible, particularly, not having a great deal of experience with the American model, I wouldn't be too sure how to deal with those, so it would be up to others to deal with the inevitable deluge. The name suggestion seems the most effective - 'Oxbridge model' is probably the more open-ended option (as, for example, some such colleges are University-owned or governed). By the way, I should disclose that I have lived at two of these colleges and indeed still am at the second. Since this term is used in academic literature (e.g. Understanding Collegiality: The Changing Oxbridge Model ) I can't see anybody objecting...--Philtweir (talk) 12:43, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
I've posted a proposal Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Residential Colleges (Oxbridge model) and will see if I can gather some more interest. Please make any necessary improvements! --Philtweir (talk) 12:00, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
Actually, I suspect that Oxbridge model may be misinterpreted (in UK and elsewhere) and also have come across a number of closely comparable institutions in non-English-speaking countries that have developed independently of Oxford and Cambridge. However, in a flash of inspiration, thought of Academic Communities, which suggests living, studying and academic staff, but in closer quarters than anything that would normally be spoken of as a university (which would naturally get redirected to Universities). It is also a bit too narrow to attract boarding schools, or anything else below tertiary level, and is sufficiently uncommon to encourage editors checking the (explanatory) definition before including an article. That might solve the US-Commonwealth conundrum too. While it may confuse those who consider a university faculty to be an 'academic community' or a group of undergraduates in the same class, these should be few enough that a well written introduction should avoid too much work being generated through reassigning articles, in contrast to a storm of dorms! --Philtweir (talk) 06:11, 29 June 2010 (UTC)