Template talk:Infobox university
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Infobox university template. |
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Template:Infobox university is permanently protected from editing because it is a heavily used or highly visible template. Substantial changes should first be proposed and discussed here on this page. If the proposal is uncontroversial or has been discussed and is supported by consensus, editors may use {{edit template-protected}} to notify an administrator or template editor to make the requested edit. Usually, any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes or categories.
Any contributor may edit the template's sandbox. Functionality of the template can be checked using test cases. |
Infoboxes | ||||
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Higher education Template‑class | |||||||
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This template was considered for merging with Template:Infobox institute on 25 January 2014. The result of the discussion was "no consensus". |
This template was considered for merging with Template:Infobox academic division on 22 January 2015. The result of the discussion was "no consensus to merge". |
Q1: Can you add a new field so that I can list an important person at a university?
A1: Probably not. To preserve due weight, there is consensus that only someone "essential to understanding the institution" should be listed. Normally, only one person — the head of the institution — qualifies for this, although in rare cases where top authority is shared jointly, two or (even more rarely) three people may qualify. All others should be mentioned in the body or just omitted.
There are many existing fields for listing people. If you are working on a university with an unusual name for a top authority, the |head_label= parameter can be used to provide the name of the role and the |head= parameter can be used to provide the person in it. However, this method should not be used to list anyone other than an insitution's top authority. |
Use of Template:Native name for native names
Hello! I recently encountered an example of this template used on National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, where both Template:Native name and the native_name_lang
parameter of this template were set. This resulted in the output of the entire output of the native name template (which was "國立陽明交通大學 (Chinese)") being wrapped in a div whose language was set to Chinese, which is semantically incorrect because the "(Chinese)" text is English. I've changed it to use only Template:Native name, and not the native_name_lang
parameter, which keeps the previous style (including the "(Chinese)" specifier at the end) without the incorrect semantic tagging. Any ideas on how to make this work together more nicely with Template:Native name (or make it more clear that it shouldn't be used with the native_name_lang
parameter)? Tol (talk | contribs) @ 05:17, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
Template-protected edit request on 14 July 2023
This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Our school has Co-Dean. I updated the sandbox. Could you kindly help add an optional item Co-Dean under Dean of of the infobox? Thanks! CEIBS Marcom (talk) 09:23, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
- Is there a reason the head_label parameter cannot be used for this? Robminchin (talk) 15:09, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
Does being a UARC quality as an academic affiliation?
Doing a spot check, it doesn't look like being a UARC is usually listed under academic affiliations. I could be way off base, but is that an appropriate thing to list under academic_affiliations? Darkage7[Talk] 17:10, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Darkage7, are you talking about on the UARC's page? I think {{Infobox institute}} might be a better fit for such an article, but if this one is to be used,
|parent=
would probably work better than|academic_affiliations=
. Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} talk 18:55, 14 July 2023 (UTC)- For example, the University of Washington's Applied Physics Lab is a UARC, affiliated with the Navy. Under UW's "academic affiliations" it doesn't list it. It does list that it's a space-grant and a sea-grant university. It seems to me like that might be an appropriate place to list that it's also a UARC. Perhaps I'm just barking up the wrong tree. The more I think about it perhaps such a connection is more appropriate for the Lab entity's specific page, rather than the University itself. Darkage7[Talk] 19:08, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
- Yeah, I would save that for the lab's page.
|academic_affiliations=
has in its description that it should be used only forAcademic organizations of which the institution is a member and provide essential definition of the institution (mission, values, activities, etc.).
A lab within the university being affiliated with the Navy doesn't mean that the university as a whole is defined by that affiliation. (I'd also say that being space grant isn't an affiliation that warrants listing, cc ElKevbo.) {{u|Sdkb}} talk 19:23, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
- Yeah, I would save that for the lab's page.
- For example, the University of Washington's Applied Physics Lab is a UARC, affiliated with the Navy. Under UW's "academic affiliations" it doesn't list it. It does list that it's a space-grant and a sea-grant university. It seems to me like that might be an appropriate place to list that it's also a UARC. Perhaps I'm just barking up the wrong tree. The more I think about it perhaps such a connection is more appropriate for the Lab entity's specific page, rather than the University itself. Darkage7[Talk] 19:08, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
Make the former name an optional but not required field in infobox
For some universities, the former names include a long list of different names. The length of the former name list may even be equal to or longer than the half space of the whole content in the infobox. For this situation, it is not appropriate to put the former name list in the infobox,as it will significantly damage the readability of remaining important information in the infobox. We should make it an option to either include the former name or not. Jianghaizhi (talk) 23:03, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
- Having so many former names that it would bloat the infobox seems like a rare situation. But in the event that that is indeed the situation, editors absolutely have the discretion to not include them. Sdkb talk 23:09, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
- The parameter is already optional and, as Sdkb says, editors have the discretion to not include all former names. I'm not sure what you're asking for here. Robminchin (talk) 00:16, 23 February 2024 (UTC)
- They are here because of an dispute at University of North Texas. There is an open discussion in the Talk page - you're welcome to weigh in there in that specific context. ElKevbo (talk) 00:28, 23 February 2024 (UTC)
An argument for OpenStreetMap
Hi, is there an argument for placing OpenStreetMaps (for example via Template:Mapframe) to add area and place of a university in the Infobox of its article. Something like maps of Template:Infobox museum. Thanks, Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 12:33, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- This could be an option. However, the problem is that, unlike most museums, a university is seldom well identified by a single point. See, for example, University of Oxford § Map. Maps identifying the location of a university within a larger area (e.g., using something like {{location map+}}), rather than on OSM, would probably be more useful. Robminchin (talk) 16:03, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Robminchin If we set for two areas the same wikidata identifier, then both areas will be highlighted when rendering in Infobox. This scenario is applied for example in Shiraz city map:
- You can see that in Shiraz map, some areas are split area. So it is no need for {{location map+}}. The OSM will be adequate for split universities in one city. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 16:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- I can see that that is working, but I can't see how it is working. Where is the shape defined in the wikidata entry? It also seems like this would be a lot of work to define the areas that probably wouldn't happen, resulting in misleading maps with single pushpin locations for the universities. Robminchin (talk) 16:50, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Robminchin No. We should only set for two (or more) areas the same Wikidata_id, and OSM will highlight both. Such a simple process. No more work is required. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 16:55, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- Fundamentally, the current {{location map+}} approach uses a single point already, so this wouldn't create a problem we don't already have. And overall, OpenStreetMap is a newer and better map system. I'd support a shift to it. Ideally, we want to be displaying the campus boundary, but where that's unavailable a point will suffice. Sdkb talk 17:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Hooman Mallahzadeh: You're going to have to explain this better, because somewhere the area to be highlighted must need to be defined in some way. Robminchin (talk) 16:26, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
- @Robminchin No. We should only set for two (or more) areas the same Wikidata_id, and OSM will highlight both. Such a simple process. No more work is required. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 16:55, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- I can see that that is working, but I can't see how it is working. Where is the shape defined in the wikidata entry? It also seems like this would be a lot of work to define the areas that probably wouldn't happen, resulting in misleading maps with single pushpin locations for the universities. Robminchin (talk) 16:50, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- You can see that in Shiraz map, some areas are split area. So it is no need for {{location map+}}. The OSM will be adequate for split universities in one city. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 16:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
Apologies for my ignorance of these mapping functions. Would we need to account for articles that use this infobox and describe institutions with multiple, disparate locations? These different locations are sometimes very far apart, sometimes in different continents. ElKevbo (talk) 21:57, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
- @ElKevbo These OSM maps would be optional (not mandatory), and in the seldom case that they are "in different continents" we can
- Remove OSM
- Only show the main building
- Show OSM with zoom = 1 so that all locations in different continents will be displayed
- See, all these three scenarios can be implemented very simply. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 04:42, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
- These are valid concerns, but as above, they're ones that are already present with our existing design of the infobox. Sdkb talk 04:54, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
@Sdkb: I sandboxed probably the true code at Template:Infobox university/sandbox. Please inspect that. And this is the test of code which works fine:
Dāneshgāh-e sana'ti-e sharif | |
Former name | Aryamehr University of Technology |
---|---|
Motto in English | The Place of Intellectuals and Elites Transforming National Talents into Global Bests |
Type | Public Research University |
Established | 1966[1] |
Endowment | US$ 0.5 billion (2021)[2] |
President | Abbas Mousavi[3] |
Academic staff | 460 (Full-time) (Fall 2022) |
Administrative staff | 395 (2021) |
Students | 10,812 (Fall 2022) |
Undergraduates | 5,659 (2021) |
Postgraduates | 3,390 (2021) |
989 (2021) | |
Location | , , 35°42′6.47″N 51°21′5.18″E / 35.7017972°N 51.3514389°E |
Campus | Urban, 74 acres (29.9 ha) |
Newspaper | Sharif Daily Scientia Iranica |
Colors | Dark Blue |
Sporting affiliations | 19 sports IUSF |
Website | en.sharif.edu |
I think these two lines can be added, and is an improvement. At least we can test that for 1 week and wait for its bug reports. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk • contribs)
- Looking at that example, I don't think that's really the best implementation. The two problems: First, it's redundant to the map you get when you click on the globe next to the coordinates. I'd prefer that it replace it. Second, it's uncollapsed, and I don't think it's due to use up so much space in the infobox (which should have lead-level weighting) on a map when the most salient piece of information (the location) is already given. A detailed map showing the shape of the campus and its surrounding environs can be saved for the article's campus section, as I did at our FA Pomona College. Sdkb talk 16:02, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
Type
The current TemplateData proposes using formulations like [[Private university|Private]] [[Proprietary education|for-profit]] [[law school]] for |type=
. This poses problems:
- Accessibility. If all of the links are unclicked (or all clicked) a reader cannot easily distinguish between Private for-profit law school, Private for-profit law school, Private for-profit law school, etc.
- Semantic meaning. This approach amalgamates multiple types into a single, undifferentiated phrase. This makes it difficult for technologies like screen readers or data reusers to interpret.
The simple solution is to amend the TemplateData to recommend that, where there is consensus to list multiple types, they be formatted as a list, using {{flatlist}}, {{ubl}}, or any similar option. Courtesy ping to users in the discussion that prompted this post: @Moxy, ElKevbo, and Sdkb:. Nikkimaria (talk) 02:24, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
- I prefer the status quo.
- For the given example, a flatlist would potentially look like
. I dislike that approach for grammatical reasons. "Private" is an incomplete thought on its own. When we say
Private for-profit law school
, the "school" can apply to everything, but if we broke them apart with a horizontal list, we'd need to say
, which would be redundant.- Private school
- For-profit school
- Law school
- MOS:SOB is qualified by
When possible
. Blue seas are never desirable, but they're not forbidden either, and I'd argue that here is one place they're inevitable, since having appropriate links/grammar takes precedence. Sdkb talk 05:23, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
- ^ "Sharif University of Technology – Introduction". Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ "Financial information". FarsNews. 10 December 2014.
- ^ "انتخاب ۷نفر از روسای دانشگاهها تایید شد". mehrnews.com (in Persian). 3 March 2024. Retrieved 9 March 2024.