Talk:Arden University

Request Edit - school to university/number of programs
Hello everyone,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University. I would like to extend a hand to the Wikipedia community in an effort to help improve this page and ensure that relevant, noteworthy and correct (sourced) information is present. My Conflict of Interest is that I am an employee of GUS - I seek to be fully compliant with the COI policies and hope to work with all editors for the improvement of the page.

I am asking for a correction to the article's content - changing "school" to "university" in the second sentence in the introduction.

"The school offers traditional, blended and online delivery options for more than 30 programs"

I am requesting this as it corrects the description of the university.

Additionally, the school offers 69 programs in total - as can be seen here: https://arden.ac.uk/our-courses. This includes undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Any advice from editors is appreciated.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 14:26, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Hi all - appreciating my own mistake there. "The university offers 69 programs in total. Apologies - MrAttempt (talk) 14:45, 3 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I've amended the sentence in question to  There's no need to specify the exact number of programs. Voceditenore (talk) 15:03, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Revamp
I've just rewritten, re-referenced, and restructured large parts of this article. It was a gruesome compendium of copyvio, out of date information, repetition, and misleading puffery. I intend to expand the History section in the coming days. Voceditenore (talk) 16:02, 4 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Expansion of the History completed. Voceditenore (talk) 16:10, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Spelling of "programme" - UK English
Hello everyone,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University. I would like to extend a hand to the Wikipedia community in an effort to help improve this page and ensure that relevant, noteworthy and correct (sourced) information is present. My Conflict of Interest is that I am an employee of GUS - I seek to be fully compliant with the COI policies and hope to work with all editors for the improvement of the page.

I am requesting that the page use UK English, primarily because this is a UK university.

This is applicable in the spelling of "program" - changing this to "programme" (including the title of the final section).

I appreciate all advice and contributed time from Editors.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 16:47, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Reply 01-NOV-2018

 * Please advise if there are any other missed words which need alteration. Thank you.  Spintendo   17:03, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Layout of programmes
Hello everyone,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University. I would like to extend a hand to the Wikipedia community in an effort to help improve this page and ensure that relevant, noteworthy and correct (sourced) information is present. My Conflict of Interest is that I am an employee of GUS - I seek to be fully compliant with the COI policies and hope to work with all editors for the improvement of the page.

Is it possible to have the university's programmes listed in the same manner as CU Coventry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CU_Coventry ; bullet-pointed and clearly laid out, though I'm not sure this is allowed as per Wiki policies?

I believe the current layout is a better wikipedia article, though if it is possible to lay-out all our programmes, as CU Coventry has, I'd be happy to provide the details.

I am happy to follow the advice of Editors and thank you all for your contributed time.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 10:43, 2 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Not done. The CU Coventry section is the inappropriate one, not this one. Encyclopedia articles are not prospectuses. What is in the article now is more than adequate. Voceditenore (talk) 14:03, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks for seeing to this Voceditenore. I appreciate your point entirely, I was simply confused as to the differences in layout between the wikipedia pages of two similar topics.

Thank you again for your time - MrAttempt (talk) 14:11, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Delivering programmes with GISMA Business School
Good morning,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest.

I am requesting for the inclusion of the following sentence (along the lines of) to the Programmes section:

"The University also provides several undergraduate and postgraduate degrees to GISMA Business School, within Arden's Berlin study centre."

This can be sourced to the following programme pages on both institution's websites: https://arden.ac.uk/where-to-study/international-study-centres/berlin-campus https://www.gisma.com/programmes

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 09:43, 21 December 2018 (UTC)


 * I have added the sentence: to the end of the Programmes section. The suggested wording was misleading, to say the least. These degrees have nothing to do with GISMA, apart from having their study centre located on GISMA's Berlin campus and being advertised as offerings on GISMA's website, like all of GISMA's other externally delivered and awarded degrees. GISMA has no degree-awarding powers whatsoever. Voceditenore (talk) 11:21, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

2017 QAA Review
Good morning,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my TALK page for all COIs).

I am requesting for the inclusion of the findings of the 2017 QAA review in the 'History' section, as found here: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviewing-higher-education/quality-assurance-reports/provider?UKPRN=10005451#.Wo6NDlrFIdX

The finds of the report noted:

"The maintenance of the academic standards of awards offered on behalf of degree-awarding bodies and/or other awarding organisations meets UK expectations. The quality of student learning opportunities is commended. The quality of the information about learning opportunities meets UK expectations. The enhancement of student learning opportunities meets UK expectations."

The review was reported in 2017, and was submitted for annual return in September 2018 which maintained the findings of the 2017 report.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 10:41, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Reply 03-JAN-2019
 Example edit request:  Please change: to read as: using this reference: When ready to proceed, please alter the template's answer parameter to read from yes to no. Regards,  Spintendo   11:18, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
 * It is not known what specific changes are requested to be made, as your proposal only requests "for the inclusion of the findings of the 2017 QAA review in the 'History' section" but does not otherwise specify how that inclusion should be effected in the prose of the article. In order to delineate this, kindly state your desired changes verbatim in the form of "Change x to y using z".
 * The Sun's diameter is 25 miles.  
 * The Sun's diameter is 864,337.3 miles.  

Thank you for getting back to me

I am requesting for the verbatim inclusion of the following at the end of the 'History' section.

"A 2017 QAA review of Arden University reported that:

The maintenance of the academic standards of awards offered on behalf of degree-awarding bodies and/or other awarding organisations meets UK expectations.

The quality of student learning opportunities is commended.

The quality of the information about learning opportunities meets UK expectations.

The enhancement of student learning opportunities meets UK expectations.

This review was submitted for annual return in September 2018 which maintained the findings of the 2017 report."

This should be similar to the layout of the QAA Assessments section of London School of Business and Finance. I'm sure that, if not verbatim, text along similar lines would be appropriate.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 11:28, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Reply 16-JAN-2019
I have added the QAA findings to the article with wording somewhat amended for clarity from that suggested above. The inline citation is to:
 * Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. Quality assurance reports: Arden University Limited. Retrieved 16 January 2019

This summary web page verifies all the information added and does not require page numbers from the full PDF version. Voceditenore (talk) 10:39, 16 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Many thanks for your help with this . Would you please add "the" to the first sentence so as to begin: "The judgements from the most recent assessment report"? Unless of course I have confused academic grammar for HE review reports. Your help is very appreciated - MrAttempt (talk) 11:50, 16 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Fixed. Voceditenore (talk) 11:58, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Philip Hallam CEO
Good morning,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my TALK page for all COIs).

I am requesting that the info-box text relating to Vice Chancellor Philip Hallam be expanded slightly to include that he is also CEO of Arden University, as sourced here: https://thepienews.com/news/gus-acquires-online-distance-he-provider/

Perhaps it could simply be updated to say: Vice Chancellor/CEO - Philip Hallam.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 11:46, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Reply 03-JAN-2019
Good morning  Spintendo   15:58, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
 * 1) ✅ CEO was added to the subject's name in the infobox.
 * 2) ❌ The request to add information regarding the 2017 QAA report was declined because the page numbers were not provided. In a report which numbers no less than 50 pages, identifying the page number for each claim is essential for verification. Such identification may be effected through the use of the  template.

Many thanks for pointing this out

I'm struggling immensely to operate via the  template. I have instead listed as follows:

The maintenance of the academic standards of awards offered on behalf of degree-awarding bodies and/or other awarding organisations meets UK expectations. Page 16.

The quality of student learning opportunities is commended.Page 40.

The quality of the information about learning opportunities meets UK expectations. Page 42.

The enhancement of student learning opportunities meets UK expectations. Page 46.

Alternatively, page 2 covers the key findings and judgements.

Would it be possible to proceed with this?

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 16:47, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Now implemented. See my comments in subsection "Reply 16-JAN-2019" of the "2017 QAA Review" section above . Voceditenore (talk) 10:58, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Holden information
Good morning,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my TALK page for all COIs).

I am requesting the removal of the bold text from the following final sentence of the first paragraph of the 'History' section:

"In 2011, Holden sold the company and its remaining subsidiaries to the US-based Capella Education and went on to develop an online business school based in Coventry."

The bold text to be deleted is not relevant to the page, as it references information of the founder following his departure and selling of RDI. This information is suitable for Holden's own wikipage and that of the school created (if such a page exists), not here.

Can it please be removed?

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 16:17, 14 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Not done. It is relevant background information about the founder of what became Arden University. Why is it so important to you to remove that brief half sentence? I find this request very odd, frankly, as if you have a quota from your employers for a certain amount of edit requests per week. Voceditenore (talk) 18:58, 14 January 2019 (UTC)


 * thank you for your consideration.


 * Through my edit requests I am looking to improve the pages. My time working on Wikipedia is not a factor in my personal earnings.


 * This request is made as the information requiring deletion is not relevant to the subject matter - thus such a deletion would be an improvement to the page. Can you explain why is this background information of the founder highlighted as being relevant? Its inclusion in the article is confusing.


 * I do not work to a quota of edits requests. I have worked according to the rules of Wikipedia consistently throughout my time here. Having made several edits in quick succession continuing from 9 months of working to community guidelines and Wikipedia rules should not, I believe, constitute the grounds for any suggestion of working to a quota. Working to a particular number of edit requests per week would not be to the benefit of the page (nor the brand), as it takes time to review each page and note information that is not accurate, and to record updates to each brand that requires acknowledging on Wikipedia (if in-line with Wiki policies).


 * Making edits according to fill a quota would simply not work as the requests would become nonsensical, whereas my above edit request asks for a specific deletion which improves the page according to relevance.


 * Thank you.


 * MrAttempt (talk) 10:19, 15 January 2019 (UTC)


 * There is nothing "confusing" about that information. A brief and proportionate discussion of an institution's founder is entirely appropriate and useful, especially when there is no Wikipedia article about them (incidentally, the term is "article" not "wikipage"). There is no need whatsoever to omit from an institution's article any and all activity by its founder after they sold the institution, let alone this one half-sentence about what Holden did shortly after selling RDI. Also, I have indented your comment above. Will you please learn to indent your comments properly in a talk page discussion. See Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Voceditenore (talk) 14:05, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

New Vice Chancellor and CEO
Good afternoon,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my TALK page for all COIs).

I am requesting that the appointment of Professor Carl Lygo as the new Vice Chancellor and CEO be included in the Info-Box. I see this has already been added.

This can be sourced here: https://thepienews.com/whos-moving-on/

Editors may wish to link this to the Professor's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lygo

I would be interested to know Editors' opinions as to including a new sentence at the end of the History section - stating the appointment of the Professor.

With thanks - MrAttempt (talk) 13:07, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Reply 18-APR-2019
The WikiLink was added. The reference for this should ideally come from the university itself. As they are his employer, they are the final arbiters on whether he works there, and in what position. A sentence stating his employment (with a University reference) would be lovely. Regards, Spintendo  14:28, 18 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi . If this helps, the University's own website does include the Professor's profile and confirms he is vice chancellor and CEO: https://arden.ac.uk/studying-with-us/about-arden/our-policies-standards/board-directors


 * As for the sentence, do you think the following simple example (or something similar) is acceptable?


 * "In 2017, Professor Carl Lygo was announced as new vice chancellor and CEO of Arden University." I hope that would suffice as an appropriate level of detail.


 * With thanks- MrAttempt (talk) 14:54, 18 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Perhaps this layout might help? Please forgive my naive attempting at the editing process - I am still learning.


 * Carl Lygo,

MrAttempt (talk) 15:54, 30 April 2019 (UTC)


 * I have added to the end of the History section using the following reference which also verifies his predecessor:
 * Arden University. "Arden University appoints Professor Carl Lygo as new Vice Chancellor and CEO".
 * Voceditenore (talk) 15:22, 7 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Many thanks to you . I was just on the verge of improving my last attempt at the given reference - I'm afraid I find this technical formatting tricky, but will keep trying to improve so it does not depend on the Editors. With thanks again - MrAttempt (talk) 08:02, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Too much use of primary sources
I intend to edit this article to reflect a proper balance of secondary vs. primary resources. At present we have way too much content grounded only in primary sources. Happy to discuss, of course. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 09:43, 20 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I have removed the Research section (added 6 months ago by an IP here). It verges on original research and synthesis derived from a six year old listing of participants in the Research Excellence Framework done before it even had university status, a job advertisement, and a perusal of Reasearchgate. If the university does no research as an institution (and there are many teaching-only universities) it would need a third party source to attest to the veracity and the significance of that. As for the remainder of the article relying too much on primary sources for its content, I am puzzled by this assertion. Of the 19 references 16 are from third-party sources. Of the remaining three, two are used to verify the programs offered, which is standard practice in university articles, and one simply verifies a staffing change. Nomoskedasticity can you explain how this represents an over-use of primary sources and content based on them? Voceditenore (talk) 06:35, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I've removed the section based only on the QAA document. This is a good example of what I mean.  A QAA report is a primary source.  Nomoskedasticity (talk) 09:28, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, the QAA section was no loss, in my view. See above for the background to that addition. Having said that, I'm not sure that QAA reports are primary sources, e.g. birth certificates or court documents. It's an interesting question. I might pose it at WikiProject Higher Education. Best Voceditenore (talk) 16:31, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Logo change
Good afternoon,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my Talk Page for all COIs). I would like to request an update to the image of the logo on the Wikipedia page. The following links show the university's new logo:

Arden University's website

Arden University's YouTube channel

Arden University’s Facebook page

Arden University's LinkedIn Page

Any insight from Editors on how to do this is appreciated. MsAttempt (talk) 13:31, 26 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Thank you for posting an edit request, unfortunately the waiting time for requested edits is currently around 6 weeks. I believe that you could upload the logo yourself following Uploading images or post a request at Files_for_upload. If you have any difficulty you could post a query at the Help desk, or the Teahouse for new editors (I am not familiar with the upload process myself). If that works, I will mark this query as answered. TSventon (talk) 13:56, 27 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your guidance. I have now uploaded the logo using the File Upload Wizard. I will revert if the logo is successfully uploaded. MsAttempt (talk) 08:20, 28 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi, I think your request should be tagged as answered, rather than reverted. The upload seems to have been successful, I hope the process was straightforward. Incidentally I have reverted an incorrect edit to the lead of the article by an internet provider editor. TSventon (talk) 10:06, 28 August 2020 (UTC)
 * , I have updated the link to the logo in the infobox. The logo was tagged for deletion as a fair use logo not used in an article so I removed that tag. the logo is also tagged as too large but the tag says that should be resolved automatically. I have st the request to answered. TSventon (talk) 11:26, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for your help with this.

EducationInvestor Awards 2020
Good afternoon,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) - the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my Talk Page for all COIs). I would like to request the following sentence be added to the bottom of the ‘History’ section:

“In 2020, Arden University won ‘Education Business of the Year’ at the EducationInvestor Awards.”

With thanks,

MsAttempt (talk) 11:15, 22 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm declining this one, on basis of WP:PRIMARY. If it is covered in a secondary source, then we can consider it further.  Nomoskedasticity (talk) 11:49, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

Hello – thank you for your response regarding this request. We would like to clarify that Investor Publishing is one of the main trade media groups in the UK, with a portfolio that includes its title EducationInvestor that covers the private education sector. It is an independent news entity and has nothing to do with our university.

A prominent UK private education title, the EducationInvestor Awards have been held annually for over a decade now. As such, we don’t believe the publication of results in a news outlet of its annual awards should count as a WP:PRIMARY source, noting the absence of any connections with our institution as well as any entities connected to us.

We thus feel it would be unfair to reject this request noting the cited source’s editorial independence – if it were the case, particularly in the UK education sector, all Times Higher Education or The Guardian’s university rankings, Office for Students assessments, Teaching Excellence Framework outcomes, et al, would fall afoul of this interpretation of WP:PRIMARY, as the only published and reliable sources tend to be the news outlets or the regulators themselves.

We would really welcome the opportunity for this request to be reconsidered on those grounds. Thank you so much for your time reviewing this.

Best wishes, MsAttempt (talk) 15:56, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

New Partnership
Good afternoon,

I am employed by Global University Systems (GUS) – the company that owns Arden University; my Conflict of Interest (please see my Talk Page for all COIs). I would like to request the following sentence be added to the ‘History’ section: “In February 2021, Arden University partnered with Perlego, the online subscription service for educational books, to provide all its students with free online textbooks and additional reading materials.” With thanks, Mstechvision (talk) 16:14, 2 March 2021 (UTC)


 * I think this is more promotional content than a relevant reference for an encyclopedic article. Ferkijel (talk) 14:10, 3 April 2021 (UTC)