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University of Oxford 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
March 15, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
November 8, 2007	Good article nominee	Listed
March 31, 2018	Peer review	Reviewed

Current status: Good article

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.

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British English Oxford spelling

User:SwissArmyGuy has added the template: use British English Oxford spelling. I would prefer to continue to use British English as it is better know. What do other editors think? The article currently uses "organised" rather than the Oxford spelling "organized" (with one exception). TSventon (talk) 12:59, 5 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but there is no exception within the Oxford dictionary to concern this. --SwissArmyGuy (talk) 13:19, 5 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The current text uses 'organised', and 'organising' but the -ize spelling is a sort of shibboleth for Oxford spelling in that particular case. William Avery (talk) 13:31, 5 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think we should use BE OE, in the spirit of ENGVAR (note- I wouldn't extend this to U of O articles). Johnbod (talk) 16:40, 5 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Just to note that User:SwissArmyGuy has recently been indefinitely blocked with extreme prejudice. The talk page makes remarkable reading. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 11:05, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I have removed the tag as the article uses standard British spelling and no one had followed SwissArmyGuy's suggestion of changing it. TSventon (talk) 21:59, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Relevant discussion on WT:HED

A discussion relevant to this article is currently taking place on WT:HED (section) on the wider picture of WP:BOOSTERISM across university articles. Please see the relevant section if you wish to contribute, as any consensus made there may end up impacting this article, and it would be sensible to get involved earlier rather than going through any discussion it again if it affects this page. Your views and input would be most welcome Shadowssettle_(talk) 10:31, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Colonial ties deletions

To maintain ranking there needs to be the removal of any reference to colonialism regarding the university. These tend to include heads of administration or so called rulers within the colonies and legislators thereof with concern to the slavery acts. These tend to not be sourced correctly or relevant at all to the subjects at hand.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:1811:2c21:f400:cdcd:51ed:b8f1:8157 (talk) 08:14, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have something particular in mind? Please give examples as I don't want to go through the whole article looking for wording that offends you. Deb (talk) 08:32, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes indeed, the heading of law of notable alumni needs to be research on a frequent basis to uphold aforementioned requirements. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1811:2C21:F400:CDCD:51ED:B8F1:8157 (talk) 08:38, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand what you mean. Are you talking about this section, and if so, which entries do you think are problematic? Deb (talk) 10:44, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Of course, the prerequisites are to keep certain references out of the article including those to the 3rd Baronet, Sir William Dolben, the 1st Marquess of Ripon and with some caution the promotion of Winston Churchill. There should in no case be mention of the 1788 Slave Trade Act. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1811:2C21:F400:BD60:69F7:C09F:92A3 (talk) 18:56, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

None of these are mentioned, do you have any constructive suggestions? Spike 'em (talk) 20:24, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Have it your way, I have only tried to prevent further damage. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1811:2C21:F400:BD60:69F7:C09F:92A3 (talk) 08:06, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It is still not at all clear what you are suggesting. If you are suggesting that any mention of colonialism, or those involved with it, be removed, then this is not WP:NPOV. Spike 'em (talk) 09:12, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think the unregistered person is talking about articles like Slave Trade Act 1788 which refer to the university, not this article specifically. Per WP:NPOV, we have no interest in whitewashing the history of Oxford or "maintain[ing] ranking". 2A02:1811:2C21:F400:BD60:69F7:C09F:92A3, what relation to the university do you have? — Bilorv (talk) 12:29, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Alternative reality

@Jonathan A Jones:, you have reverted a change by an IP editor from alternate reality to alternative reality (referring to Philip Pullman's work. Can you explain whu alternative reality is incorrect? An internet searcg (e,g. https://www.colesandlopez.com/blog/alternative-reality) suggests it may be a question of WP:ENGVAR, with alternative reality more common in the UK. TSventon (talk) 13:21, 18 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I would say the "alternate reality" is standard in the UK for the literary genre, while "alternative reality" is used rarely except in theoretical physics or when making accusations against political opponents (compare with "alternative facts"). Jonathan A Jones (talk) 14:39, 18 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Images

The edit war about the Bhutto and Ghandi images, is not just about them. The Ghandi version also has an image of Dorothy Hodgkin replacing one of Malala Yousafzai and deletes text about Malala Yousafzai. I think it should be discussed here. --Bduke (talk) 22:19, 3 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have combined the images that are being fought over. I think both can be in the article. If you disagree, discuss it here before reverting my changes.--Bduke (talk) 01:04, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Malala isn't a scientist. Spike 'em (talk) 01:26, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

OK, where do we move her to? --Bduke (talk) 01:33, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

In the text I have added her under "Politics". No view on the images. Johnbod (talk) 02:17, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This edit was by an admin!! Strewth. No refs, wrong header.... Johnbod (talk) 02:20, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I was amazed by that as well, but your fix is reasonable so no harm done in the end. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 08:39, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am sorry. I am over 80 and was not good yesterday. I should not have been editing then. I have not used the admin tools for some time and I plan to hand them back. --Bduke (talk) 20:20, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have done that.--Bduke (talk) 21:12, 7 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Public or private

Is there consensus for changing the type of university in the infobox from Public research university, which has been stable for over a year? I think that this should not be changed without discussion.

User:42.110.165.13 changed the type of university in the infobox to Private research university (redlink) and then Private (a disambiguation page) and I reverted them both times. User:Deb did you mean to revert my edit but warn the IP account user? TSventon (talk) 18:52, 7 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No, I meant to revert the IP. Maybe we got there simultaneously. Deb (talk) 18:53, 7 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There has been a very long running debate on this point without clear consensus, but a vague preponderance for "public". The underlying problem is that the public/private dichotomy is essentially a US based concept and does not map well onto systems in other countries such as the UK. The article correctly makes clear that Oxford is neither simply a public nor a private university but has aspects of both. Personally I think that the infobox field should simply be left blank. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 19:09, 7 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I completely agree. The public/private divide in Oxford is so complex, we can not come to a simple answer.--Bduke (talk) 21:15, 7 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Pandemics

I have thought that because global warming affects the world and because the current pandemics have the cases in many parts of it, they are probably related. I have written that for some posts of or a message to US President Joe Biden and the UN on Facebook in the past. However, I did not know if some people got interested in my idea as I received no replies from them.

I wanted to write my idea of covering the faces to prevent infections. It is to create a helmet-like equipment with a small air purifier inside it. In this way, I think that the infections in many cases could be avoided. Indoors, we could have the air purifiers. Outdoors, we could use the helmet-like equipment. I wrote about this equipment to the US Embassy in Tokyo through Facebook many months ago, but no one seems interested in it. It might not be useful, but I have thought that it would save people.

I heard that the patients who are and will be infected with the serious diseases might recover. I heard that a person’s power of resistance is dramatically increased with a shot of Vitamin C, and so it might be possible to save the lives of the people who are and will be infected with them. Ruby2021 (talk) 09:53, 30 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 ::There has been a very long running debate on this point without clear consensus, but a vague preponderance for "public". The underlying problem is that the [[public university|public]]/[[private university|private]] dichotomy is essentially a US based concept and does not map well onto systems in other countries such as the UK. The article correctly makes clear that Oxford is neither simply a public nor a private university but has aspects of both. Personally I think that the infobox field should simply be left blank. [[User:Jonathan A Jones|Jonathan A Jones]] ([[User talk:Jonathan A Jones|talk]]) 19:09, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
 :::I completely agree. The public/private divide in Oxford is so complex, we can not come to a simple answer.--[[User:Bduke|Bduke]] ([[User talk:Bduke|talk]]) 21:15, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
+== Pandemics ==
+I have thought that because global warming affects the world and because the current pandemics have the cases in many parts of it, they are probably related. I have written that for some posts of or a message to US President Joe Biden and the UN on Facebook in the past. However, I did not know if some people got interested in my idea as I received no replies from them.
+I wanted to write my idea of covering the faces to prevent infections. It is to create a helmet-like equipment with a small air purifier inside it. In this way, I think that the infections in many cases could be avoided. Indoors, we could have the air purifiers. Outdoors, we could use the helmet-like equipment.
+I wrote about this equipment to the US Embassy in Tokyo through Facebook many months ago, but no one seems interested in it. It might not be useful, but I have thought that it would save people.
+I heard that the patients who are and will be infected with the serious diseases might recover. I heard that a person’s power of resistance is dramatically increased with a shot of Vitamin C, and so it might be possible to save the lives of the people who are and will be infected with them. [[User:Ruby2021|Ruby2021]] ([[User talk:Ruby2021|talk]]) 09:53, 30 August 2021 (UTC)