Talk:University Canada West

Governance

BrandDude - I've updated the chair to Alfred Morris. To your question about governance, that sounds fine. It would probably work best if you drafted proposed text and post it here for a week or so (along with sources; though, in the case of governance for any corporation or association, the organization's website itself is usually sufficient unless there is some obvious controversy as to why it would not be reliable). If no one has objected or suggested alterations after that, ping me and I'll be happy to add it. LavaBaron (talk) 02:00, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

LavaBaron – Thanks for the edit and for the advice. I’ll be in touch soon. All the best, - BrandDude (talk) 09:19, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

To all page watchers, may I suggest the content below to be included under this article’s Academic section? For background, please refer to my previous conversation above with LavaBaron. Let me know if you have any objections or suggestions on the proposed draft below:

The governance structure of UCW is composed of an academic council and a board of governance, in line with the bicameral system in place at many other Canadian universities. Under this structure, the board oversees the strategic direction of the university including fiduciary, legal and financial responsibility, while the academic council – which represents staff, faculty, students and alumni – presides over the university’s academic programs and policies.

Although UCW doesn’t receive public funds, the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education requires the institution to file audited financial statements. The institution also undergoes an annual quality review by the Degree Quality Assessment Board.

In September 2015, Dr Brad O’Hara was appointed as Vice-President of Academic and Students. As of 2015, the board of governance is chaired by British academic Alfred Cosier Morris CBE DL

References

Many thanks in advance for your feedback! -BrandDude (talk) 14:22, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

@LavaBaron: – Hello! There have been no objections to my edit request posted here on 29 October. Do you think you can implement them when you have some time? Feel free to make any amendments as you see appropriate. Thanks a lot in advance for your help! - BrandDude (talk) 08:39, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

@BrandDude: - looks good! I'm traveling at the moment but will be able to make these before the end of the week, though probably sooner, if that's okay. LavaBaron (talk) 21:30, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

@LavaBaron: - Thanks for letting me know! Feel free to ping me if you have any questions or concerns. All the best, BrandDude (talk) 12:22, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

@BrandDude: I've made these changes with two modifications - I removed the word "Dr" per the manual of style for WP:CREDENTIAL and removed Morrris' post-nominal letters as they've already been used in the first instance (the infobox) and, IIRC, the standard for post-nominals was they are included in the first instance and dropped in subsequent references. LavaBaron (talk) 05:36, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

@LavaBaron: Thank you very much for your help and advice as always. All the best, BrandDude (talk) 11:38, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Edit Request - Scholarships

Hello pagewatchers - may I suggest the edit below to be added under the ‘Academics’ session? While I understand that some primary sources have been used in the draft, I believe there are no obvious reasons as to why the university’s website would not be a reliable source of information about its own scholarship programmes. This doesn’t seem to be unusual - the McGill University article, for example, follows a similar pattern. Please let me know your thoughts on the below. I’m very happy to take your suggestions on board.

Scholarships at UCW are available to Canadian and international applicants for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Similarly to other Canadian universities, many of the scholarships available are merit-based, relying upon applicants’ high school (or international equivalent) grades. For example, domestic and foreign students applying for UCW’s Academic Excellence need a minimum 3.20 GPA out of 4.33 to qualify for the minimum scholarship award. The amount offered as scholarship grows proportionately to the applicant’s GPA, going up to $20,000 (undergraduate) and $15,000 (graduate) for those with a minimum GPA of 3.80 and above.

The university also offers one annual full scholarship exclusively for First Nations applicants. In total, according to an announcement made in November 2015, UCW’s scholarship programs for 2016 are, together, valued at more than $800,000.

References

Thanks! - BrandDude (talk) 16:28, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

@LavaBaron: Hello! I’m wondering if you could give me a hand again. I posted the above edit request 10 days ago and I was hoping to receive for some feedback, but had no response so far. When you have some free time, do you think you can take a look and let me know if the content is acceptable? Thanks a lot! - BrandDude (talk) 11:02, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

BrandDude this seems fine to me. I'm not familiar enough with the treatment of scholarships on higher education sites, however, to know if this is WP:PROMOTIONAL or not. I don't think it is, however, out of a preponderance of caution let me get some advice and I'll circle right back. LavaBaron (talk) 13:41, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Seems to be outright promotion without any encyclopedic value as sourced. --Ronz (talk) 16:30, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. I don’t think the wording itself is promotional, but I completely understand that the lack of RS might be an issue here. I’ll try and find some better references and get in touch again. Thanks a lot! -- BrandDude (talk) 11:23, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

BrandDude - it may be more of an issue with the content itself rather than the sources. On reviewing a random selection of university pages for University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, and University of Manitoba, it doesn't appear any contain this level of detail (or even mention) of scholarship programs the university offers. Particularly spelling-out specific acceptance criteria and dollar amounts is probably more akin to what would find on a company, organization, or institution's website than in an encyclopedia. LavaBaron (talk) 12:12, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

LavaBaron - Thanks a lot, I appreciate the feedback. I was looking around and there doesn’t seem to be a standard when it comes to scholarships. While the WP:UNIGUIDE doesn’t have a guideline on scholarships, the McGill University, New York University, the University of Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology articles (some of which are GA) give a reasonable amount of details on scholarships. Since UCW does offer a number of scholarships, do you think it would be worth to mention it? We don’t necessarily need to add all the details, but perhaps a couple of sentences as below would do the job. Let me know your thoughts:

Scholarships at UCW are available to Canadian and international applicants for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Similarly to other Canadian universities, many of the scholarships available are merit-based, relying upon applicants’ high school (or international equivalent) grades.

References

Thanks a lot! -- BrandDude (talk) 13:17, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

BrandDude - based on your rationale, I don't think that's unreasonable. I've implemented this addition. LavaBaron (talk) 21:55, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

The second half is WP:SYN based upon primary sources, so I've removed it. Let's look at what sourcing the GA articles have. --Ronz (talk) 22:35, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Good point, Ronz. LavaBaron (talk) 21:21, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

Looking over the GA articles mentioned, I don't think the remaining bit strays too far. --Ronz (talk) 22:44, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you both for your help! –BrandDude (talk) 20:35, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Looking over this again, it's WP:SOAP. UCW isn't comparable to the universities mentioned, or any research university for that matter. I've removed it. --Ronz (talk) 14:55, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

Edit Request - Academics

Hello pagewatchers - may I suggest the edit below to be added under the ‘Academics’ session? Given the significance, do you think it would be worth mentioning this in the lede as well?

“In January 2016, undergraduate programs at University Canada West have been granted unconditional five-year consent by BC's Minister of Advanced Education on the recommendation of the Degree Quality Assessment Board. Representatives of the Board determined that “UCW programs met or exceeded the learning outcomes specified” without condition after reviewing the Bachelor of Commerce and renamed Bachelor of Arts in Business Communication.”

Let me know your views! Many thanks - BrandDude (talk) 16:58, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

References

@LavaBaron: Hello! Hope all is well with you. Sorry to bother, but I wonder if you could help me with an edit again. I posted an edit request 10 days ago but had no feedback so far. If you have some free time, do you think you can take a look and let me know if the content above is relevant enough to be added to the article? Thanks a lot! - BrandDude (talk) 10:25, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

@LavaBaron: Hello! Hope you had a good break. Sorry to bother again, but do you think you could take a look into the above whenever you have some free time? Thanks a lot! - BrandDude (talk) 16:20, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

It's a single-paragraph summary of a UCW press release. It has no wider context demonstrating any encyclopedic value, so I think it best be left out per SOAP. --Ronz (talk) 16:39, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

BrandDude, I have to concur with Ronz on this point. The Academia Group company's corporate website is probably not RS. I tried looking for something substantially similar at the Ministry's own website but couldn't find an announcement there and there was nothing in mainstream media. If another source is forthcoming, however, I think we could incorporate this in the future. LavaBaron (talk) 20:24, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Thank you both for your feedback! I'll get in touch again should I have more significant content for the page. Thanks for taking time to look into it. All the best - BrandDude (talk) 08:51, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Edit Request - ACBSP Accreditation

Hi all, University Canada West is now accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). May I kindly request one of the page watchers to update this information both in the body of the article and also on the infobox? The article currently says that UCW is a candidate for the accreditation.

Here are the sources:
https://www.acbsp.org/members/default.asp?view=0&id=18775599&pubview=
https://www.acbsp.org/page/membership_list

Please let me know if I can be of any further help. In case anyone has any questions regarding my COI with the institution, you can find more information in my user page and in previous posts in this talk page. I am available - feel free to ping me anytime.

Thanks! - BrandDude (talk) 20:25, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

I have updated the Academics section accordingly. I have not "updated" the infobox, and in fact have removed the "Affiliation" entry. It has nothing to do with accreditation. Voceditenore (talk) 21:22, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

@Voceditenore: thanks for taking time to look into this and for your quick response. I’m sure you are a lot more experienced than me to know what is appropriate and what is not. The change you applied to the infobox seems to be in line with what other university articles have in their infoboxes. Thanks for helping me out once again! - BrandDude (talk) 21:52, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Student default rate

In case someone wants to look for valid sources, or check to see if these are archived somewhere, the following was removed: --Ronz (talk) 15:24, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

"Thirty per-cent of UCW students defaulted on their government-backed loans in 2009, compared against a default rate of 3.7% at the University of British Columbia and 4.7% at the University of Victoria. By 2010 that number had dropped to 20-percent, further improving to 16-percent by the end of 2012."

Source for Campus section

Hi Ronz – I managed to find a source for Vancouver’s heritage buildings and the London Building is included in the register. Please check page 25: http://guidelines.vancouver.ca/V001.pdf

Since we’re talking about the building, would it be appropriate to add an image of the façade under this section? Please see an option below which clearly shows the name of the building – let me know if you agree to use it: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_Canada_West_-_The_London_Building_Campus.jpg

Thanks - BrandDude (talk) 11:23, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. That is an authoritative, primary source. The only independent source doesn't mention the building at all, just the location. It seems a bit undue to go into all that detail.

I'm no experts on images and their use. I'm not sure how well it will scale down to a suitable size. There's a 320x197 version of the image that seems too big. What size are you thinking? Go ahead and put it in so we can see how it renders. --Ronz (talk) 15:42, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Hello pagewatchers, please could someone assist with my request above? Due to my COI with the university, I’d rather not interfere on the content and look of the page directly. Could one of the volunteers here upload the image below to the article?

Here’s the URL to the image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_Canada_West_-_The_London_Building_Campus.jpg

Probably the “Campus” section would be a suitable area for the image. Grateful for your help. Thanks - BrandDude (talk) 16:57, 14 March 2018 (UTC)