Talk:Laureate Education

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The Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use require that editors disclose their "employer, client, and affiliation" with respect to any paid contribution; see WP:PAID. For advice about reviewing paid contributions, see WP:COIRESPONSE.

Craig.Lundsten (talk · contribs) has been paid by Laureate International Universities. Their editing has included contributions to this article. COI declared here
PMV1111 (talk · contribs) has been paid by Laureate Education, Inc.. Their editing has included contributions to this article. declared employment status here.

Individuals with a conflict of interest, particularly those representing the subject of the article, are strongly advised not to directly edit the article. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. You may request corrections or suggest content here on the Talk page for independent editors to review, or contact us if the issue is urgent.

Article Move (Rename) Pre-Request

Given that this article is about the entirety of Laureate, not just the international universities, the title should be changed to Laureate Education. Is there any reason not to do so? If so, I will submit a formal move request. If not, I will go ahead and move it. - Frankie1969 (talk) 17:49, 8 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds ok to me. ElKevbo is the master at this.CollegeMeltdown (talk) 21:45, 8 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Since the LE article has edit history, I have submitted the change to Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests. - Frankie1969 (talk) 16:02, 14 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

COI disclosure and infobox updates

It is requested that an edit be made to the semi-protected article at P. (edit · history · last · links · protection log)

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Hello, my name is Patrice. I'm here on behalf of my employer, Laureate Education. Per WP:COI, I've disclosed my conflict of interest here and on my Talk page. When I first came to Wikipedia, I was not aware of the rules for COI editors and made the mistake of directly editing this article. From now on, I will strictly follow the rules and as such will only post suggestions for updates and changes to the article here and on appropriate discussion pages. My goal here is to improve the quality of this article and the encyclopedia overall by providing up-to-date information, improving sourcing, addressing inaccuracies, and suggesting structural changes.

The first change I'd like to propose is the addition of some information to our company infobox. It appears common for infoboxes to list key people within the company and a link to the company's page. Ours currently only mentions the company's founder, Douglas Becker and does not include an external link to our website. I'd like to suggest the following:

Addition of our current CEO Eilif Serck-Hanssen, per this Baltimore Business Journal article.
Review the list of key people in The Wall Street Journal's profile of Laureate Education and add whoever editors feel is appropriate.
Addition of a link to Laureate Education's website.

Feel free to reach out with questions or comments here or on my talk page. Thanks! PMV1111 (talk) 05:08, 18 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Link to company's website was already present, but added to the Infobox (standard). The CEO change is mentioned in article already, I'll add your source later. I need more time to look at key people, but a larger rewriting of this article is needed (e.g. the section about visits is highly unusual). I also checked the article on French Wikipedia and it is very poor... but "I'll be back". --Anneyh (talk) 11:09, 11 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Anneyh,

Thanks so much for your thoughts here and for your recent improvements to the page. Sensitive to your volunteer time, I'm following up to see if there is any way that I can help to provide you with more info about key people. I'm also happy to collaborate further and welcome your thoughts on "larger rewriting of the article" as you point out is much needed. Thanks again, I'll be standing by in case I may be helpful. Much appreciated! PMV1111 (talk) 08:03, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Right now Laureate Education mostly sells its assets and the higher education business in which it operates is disrupted by the covid. I think the best is to keep the article as it is (no more, but also no less) and see how the situation develops. In case a major coverage appears in the news (e.g. New York Times) this will be the base for a restructuring. Do you agree to close this? --Anneyh (talk) 14:01, 21 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again Anneyh. It makes sense to leave the article as-is for now, as you say, and address larger rewrites later as media coverage allows. However, to answer your question about whether to close this, I believe some points in my initial request above are still unanswered. Before marking this as "closed", can you please advise on these points, specifically:

Addition of our current CEO Eilif Serck-Hanssen, per this Baltimore Business Journal article. (current mention within the article is unsourced)
Review the list of key people in The Wall Street Journal's profile of Laureate Education and add whoever is appropriate.

Let me know if I can offer any other helpful information and thanks again for your continued coordination. All the best! PMV1111 (talk) 09:11, 25 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It is requested that an edit be made to the semi-protected article at A. (edit · history · last · links · protection log)

This template must be followed by a complete and specific description of the request, that is, specify what text should be removed and a verbatim copy of the text that should replace it. "Please change X" is not acceptable and will be rejected; the request must be of the form "please change X to Y".

The edit may be made by any autoconfirmed user. Remember to change the |answered=no parameter to "yes" when the request has been accepted, rejected or on hold awaiting user input. This is so that inactive or completed requests don't needlessly fill up the edit requests category. You may also wish to use the {{ESp}} template in the response. To request that a page be protected or unprotected, make a protection request.

Hello editors, I'm appreciative of user:Anneyh for getting this started and responding to my initial request. It seems they may be busy and I am respectful of their time as a volunteer. In hopes of capturing other editors' attention, I'm reopening the edit request here for assistance with:

Addition of sourcing about current CEO Eilif Serck-Hanssen, as the current mention of him within the article is unsourced. Suggested source: Baltimore Business Journal
Update the infobox with a list of key people, according to The Wall Street Journal's profile of Laureate Education

Let me know if I can offer any other helpful details. Thank you in advance for any other considerations. Best, PMV1111 (talk) 04:08, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I did the easy adding of citations, but I don't know this infobox template, so I'll leave that for someone else. Cheers, Suriname0 (talk) 15:21, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Done Ferkjl (talk) 12:50, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Updates to Visits by world leaders

It is requested that an edit be made to the semi-protected article at A. (edit · history · last · links · protection log)

This template must be followed by a complete and specific description of the request, that is, specify what text should be removed and a verbatim copy of the text that should replace it. "Please change X" is not acceptable and will be rejected; the request must be of the form "please change X to Y".

The edit may be made by any autoconfirmed user. Remember to change the |answered=no parameter to "yes" when the request has been accepted, rejected or on hold awaiting user input. This is so that inactive or completed requests don't needlessly fill up the edit requests category. You may also wish to use the {{ESp}} template in the response. To request that a page be protected or unprotected, make a protection request.

Hello, hello! After some recent collaboration with editors to improve the page (for which I am very appreciative of Ferkjl's efforts, thank you!), I have some new notes to share about the Visits by world and business leaders content. I suggest trimming this content by removing mentions that are unsourced, reliant on press releases and other primary sources, or that are otherwise unacceptable for use on Wikipedia. Specifically, I suggest removing the following content based on these points:

(Press release) Condoleezza Rice, addressed students from the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies and Pearl Academy, in India in December 2013
(source inaccessible) José Miguel Insulza, Universidad Viña del Mar (2011)
(video) Lech Wałęsa, Campus Symposium at BiTS (2008) and Universidad Europea de Madrid (2011)
(press releases and sources missing) Tony Blair, key-note speech at BiTS Campus Symposium (2009), Anhembi Morumbi University (2010), Universidad Europea de Madrid (2011), Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis (UniRitter) and Campus Eiffel Ecole Centrale d'Electronique Paris (ECE PARIS)
(unsourced) Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico, Presidential Counselor at Laureate International Universities (2015)

One editor noted above, generally, that the section is "highly unusual". I am interested in thoughts from others for the best handling of this atypical information, beyond my observations listed here. I will continue to avoid changing the article myself, understanding rules about my conflict of interest. If there are any interested volunteers, I look forward to collaborating and will ask you to make edits on my behalf. Thanks for any help, in advance! PMV1111 (talk) 04:09, 14 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

As you just explained yourself, there are no secondary sources on such topics (press release, videos of the event, unsourced), so it shall not be included in the article. --Anneyh (talk) 06:22, 14 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Anneyh,

To clarify, the items I listed are included now within the current article. I am requesting that they be removed, for lack of relevance and appropriate, secondary sourcing for Wikipedia. Do I understand correctly that you are in agreement and these details should not be included in the article? If so, would you be willing to remove these details from the contents of the Visits by world leaders section?

Condoleezza Rice, addressed students from the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies and Pearl Academy, in India in December 2013
José Miguel Insulza, Universidad Viña del Mar (2011)
Lech Wałęsa, Campus Symposium at BiTS (2008) and Universidad Europea de Madrid (2011)
Tony Blair, key-note speech at BiTS Campus Symposium (2009), Anhembi Morumbi University (2010), Universidad Europea de Madrid (2011), Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis (UniRitter) and Campus Eiffel Ecole Centrale d'Electronique Paris (ECE PARIS)
Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico, Presidential Counselor at Laureate International Universities (2015)

Thanks again. Best, PMV1111 (talk) 03:43, 21 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again, I noticed that User:Anneyh has not been active on the site since their last post here, based on contributions. I hope all is well. Meantime, Ferkjl, I wonder if you have any thoughts to share, or if this request interests you like the last one for implementation within the live article on my behalf? I am happy to collaborate further here but will not edit the main article myself because of my conflict of interest. Thanks for any consideration! PMV1111 (talk) 03:40, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@PMV1111: Couldn't agree more. I think the entire section could be removed, and its "spirit" incorporated, if and when warranted, as a phrase in the Corporate History section, maybe something along the lines of "Laureate institutions have been visited by world leaders such as X°, Y°, and Z° among others, in the context of XYZ". From a cursory read, it seems some of those visits are tangentially related to the institution (e.g. they were there for a symposium), some were invited to be awarded an honorary title, so it's quite chaotic and a tad misleading. Ferkjl (talk) 06:11, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ferkjl, thanks for these thoughts. That makes sense to me. To make it easy, I have tried to fill in the blanks for what you suggested and included references from the section within the live article, as follows:

Laureate institutions have been visited by world leaders such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Henry Cisneros among others,^[1]^[2] to speak at honor and commencement ceremonies respectively.

References

^ "La Universidad Europea de Madrid entregará hoy a Erdogan el título de Doctor Honoris Causa" (in Spanish). Ecodiario.eleconomista.es. 2010-05-18. Retrieved 2014-03-08.
^ The National Hispanic University (2013-05-15). "Henry Cisneros, Former Secretary of HUD, Delivers NHU Commencement Address" (Press release). Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 2014-03-08. Retrieved 2014-03-08.

If this fits the bill, would you be willing to incorporate it (or similar) within the live article on my behalf, and delete the excess information as you suggest? I prefer not to update the text myself to be respectful of rules about my conflict of interest. Thanks again for collaborating! PMV1111 (talk) 12:06, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Sure does, it's short and neutral. I went in and implemented it. Ferkjl (talk) 10:47, 7 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Corporate history rewrite

It is requested that an edit be made to the semi-protected article at Laureate Education. (edit · history · last · links · protection log)

This template must be followed by a complete and specific description of the request, that is, specify what text should be removed and a verbatim copy of the text that should replace it. "Please change X" is not acceptable and will be rejected; the request must be of the form "please change X to Y".

The edit may be made by any autoconfirmed user. Remember to change the |answered=no parameter to "yes" when the request has been accepted, rejected or on hold awaiting user input. This is so that inactive or completed requests don't needlessly fill up the edit requests category. You may also wish to use the {{ESp}} template in the response. To request that a page be protected or unprotected, make a protection request.

Hello hello! I'm back again to request the help of editors. I've noticed that the current Corporate history section is quite detailed and seems like could be shortened to fit Wikipedia's summary style. I've worked to consolidate the existing section and updated it to follow a chronological timeline. Ferkjl and Anneyh, since you've both provided constructive feedback and assistance implementing my previous requests, I thought I'd ask if you'd be willing to review and leave feedback or implement changes as appropriate? I've posted a link to the draft at the end of this message and some highlights of changes below.

Renamed the section as History, incorporated details from the current Debt and downsizing subsection throughout, and organized it into chronological subsections based on major moments in the company's history.
Throughout the draft, I've worked to improve sourcing where possible by replacing primary sources with secondary coverage, or removing content when I could not find appropriate sources.
I've reworked some content which felt unbalanced and like the content did not meet Wikipedia's standards for being impartial. As an example, content about the Thunderbird partnership currently says that four board members resigned in protest. To me, that seemed vague, so I've replaced it with a summary of why some trustees were concerned about the partnership and why some were in favor. I hope that provides more complete context to readers.
I've also worked to trim unnecessary details and cut information that is no longer relevant or is captured later in the article. For example, the reference to Bill Clinton's compensation is discussed later in the article, so it seemed redundant here.
Ferkjl, you helped work on the previous Visits by world leaders section, and moved a shortened version into Corporate history. In my rewrite, I modified this based on a better source available from The Washington Post and moved it into a position that made sense chronologically.

Because it is a longer draft, and I don't want to clog up this Talk page, I posted it for review here.

Again, I welcome all feedback and suggestions here or on the draft's Talk page. My goal is to provide content that will improve the article from an encyclopedic standpoint, and requires less maintenance. As always, I appreciate volunteers who can help me with these requests so I can follow the conflict of interest guidelines. Many thanks! PMV1111 (talk) 04:50, 14 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "La Universidad Europea de Madrid entregará hoy a Erdogan el título de Doctor Honoris Causa" (in Spanish). Ecodiario.eleconomista.es. 2010-05-18. Retrieved 2014-03-08.

[2] The National Hispanic University (2013-05-15). "Henry Cisneros, Former Secretary of HUD, Delivers NHU Commencement Address" (Press release). Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 2014-03-08. Retrieved 2014-03-08.

[1]

[2]