Talk:University of Edinburgh

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

University of Edinburgh has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
May 22, 2013	WikiProject peer review	Reviewed
September 13, 2021	Good article nominee	Listed

Current status: Good article

Higher education

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Edinburgh Top‑importance

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Archives

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The following Wikipedia contributor has declared a personal or professional connection to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view.

Arcaist (talk · contribs) This user has declared a connection. (I am an employee of the university and have contributed significantly to the article, including bringing it to GA status. I believe that my edits have not been affected by COI, and I have not attempted to present the University in a particularly positive light (e.g. I've culled the list of notable people and expanded a section on poor student satisfaction). Please flag any of my edits you feel are problematic here or on my talk page.)

Thomas Jefferson quote

I commented out the quote from Thomas Jefferson as I'm not sure it belongs with the history of the university. link The fact that Thomas Jefferson wrote to a family member doesn't seem relevant, also the emphasis seems POV (ok Thomas Jefferson thought the courses were great in 1786, but...). Any other opinions?

Gaza protest

Does this really deserve the space and picture it has been given on the main article? The protest lasted from May-June, making it far more ephemeral than many previous student occupations (e.g., those of the recent UCU strikes!) which are (rightly) not given the same space. It seems, to me, to simply fall under the banner of student activism (i.e., should be left to footnotes in articles). The Anti-Apartheid Society of the 1980s, for example, does not even earn itself a mention on the Wikipedia page, despite it being far more effective, significant, and long-lasting. A University as old as Edinburgh cannot live under the tyranny of the present! Psychopompologist (talk) 20:38, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I added this section while the protest was in progress. Given that it was widely reported in the MSM at the time and there were sister protests in campuses across the country, and internationally, while hostilities in Gaza are continuing and protests are being conflated with antisemitism, the section covers matters current and notable enough for it to remain as is. Moreover, the UoE protest brought to everyone’s notice related concerns of responsible investment, causing uni admin to revisit the university’s entire investment policy with students as consultants. Moreover, remarkably, the students were not evicted from the quad, and more than 600 staff signed an open letter supporting the students’ actions. The hunger strike by 8 students took the protest beyond the common or garden variety. If you look through Wikipedia starting with the articles linked to, it is obvious that this remains a hot button issue. As world events change, and the Gaza situation is resolved, your footnote suggestion could be considered when the time comes. I’ll look into the Anti-Apartheid Society you mention too, as it may warrant a sentence, just as this Gaza protest probably will become in a few months/years time. I already added a section on UCU Industrial action here a while ago. Chrisdevelop (talk) 14:57, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Nobel laureates

The phrase used here is "Nobel Prize laureates" not "Nobel Prize prizes". My understanding is that the word "laureates" refers to the people who have been awarded a prize, not the prizes themselves. Hinton has won 2 of the 20 prizes. So there are still only 19 laureates. What are other editors' understanding? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 08:20, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by he "won 2 of the 20 prizes"? You're making it sound like he won two Nobels, and thus the number of people should be lower than the number of prizes.

As the table shows, 20 different people were awarded a prize (we're obviously not double counting Edwards here), so what am I missing here? — Arcaist ^(contr ^—talk) 15:21, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I had assumed, for some reason, that Hinton's Turing Award was deemed equivalent to a Nobel Prize, and that he was already counted for the former. But if there are 20 different names in the Nobel table, there now seems to be no problem with Hinton. But the text should say "As of October 2024, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, with 21 awards..", because Edwards has two? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:29, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rowling is not a graduate

Some editor or editors are insisting on presenting J K Rowling as a graduate of Edinburgh because she went to Moray House when it was part of Napier. It's an anachronism and not correct, plain & simple, I don't understand why I'm having to explain the removal of such straightfoward nonsense on the talkpage. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 21:35, 12 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Deacon of Pndapetzim, I'm not the person who insisted, but we might as well talk about it.

Moray House was its own thing until it signed a Statement of Intent with Herriot-Watt in 1989 to get validation for its degrees. MH students were considered H-W students and received H-W degrees. However, MH was still legally its own institution, and as such initiated leaving H-W in 1995, which was completed in 1998 with the merger into UoE. Note that it had not been merged into H-W, otherwise it could not have left since parts of a university cannot simply decide to split themselves off from their mother institution unilaterally.

So, your perspective is that since Rowling got her MH Certificate in 1996, that would have been a H-W degree since MH was still under agreement with them. The people arguing for listing Rowling I think say that UoE is the successor organization to MH (since MH ceased to exist as its own entity with the merger but not with the agreement with H-W), and since today's MH is a part of UoE.

Back when I introduced the note you deleted, I followed the second interpretation (and because I thought it would prevent other editors asking about her). But I can see your point - if I got it correctly - that she doesn't have a UoE degree, but rather a degree from an institution which is now part of UoE.

By the way, if you want a civil discussion, calling things "bogus" and "nonsense" is unlikely to get you the desired result. — Arcaist ^(contr ^—talk) 20:09, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Arcaist great contribution, a bunch of obvious things that have already been said and some misguided and patronising advice about language. Listen, I'm not here to waste time getting into any fights with random bams, life is too short, if you want bogus nonsense anachronisms on the page the resulting bogus content is your fault, WIkipedia is full of stuff like that these days the world's not going to end, I'm just another idiot among us all and I've done my part. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 11:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]