Talk:List of fictional universities

Scope: the extraterrestrials
Until such time as someone creates List of fictional extraterrestrial universities or similar (and adds it to Fictional education navbox), I think the Unseen University, University of Maximegalon and University of Gallifrey belong in this list as having clear cultural links to Britain: the first created by national treasure Terry Pratchett, and the latter two emanating from the BBC. Pam D  12:03, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Irish?
While the title says "British or Irish" none of the fictional institutions are said to be located in Ireland. Surely it makes sense to trim the category to fictional British universities and list any future Irish instances individually? 85.94.240.230 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 18:14, 31 January 2023 (UTC)


 * @85.94.240.230 Note Kings College, Dublin, and University College Limerick. Both in Ireland. Pam  D  23:06, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

Internationalised - so now needs help from other editors
This page has been moved from "List of fictional British and Irish universities" to "List of fictional universities" after its nomination for deletion at AfD on the grounds of being over-narrow. The consensus was to rename it. I hope that other editors will now contribute non-UK&I entries to the list, with care. I tried to make a start with Monsters University, the top of the WonkHE rankings for 2022 ... but gave up as I wasn't sure of its location (Extraterrestrial, or US?) and its creators (Pixar, or the screenwriters, or ...). Pam D  07:38, 21 July 2024 (UTC)


 * It's also possible that some uni names which were not ambiguous when the list was confined to UK&Ireland are now ambiguous and need a "Not to be confused with" note (that's now on my "to do" list). The next one on the WonkHE list certainly needs one: the fictional Winchester University of Dear White People is not the real English University of Winchester. Pam  D  07:46, 21 July 2024 (UTC)


 * In a brief search I've just found one relevant fictional German university, that of Weissnichtwo in Sartor Resartus attested by The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History, and Methodology, p. 350, but I am not sure if that warrants inclusion or not. In general I am not completely sure what the inclusion criterea here should be.
 * I wonder if there are objections to changing "Extraterrestrial" for "Discworld" in the case of the Unseen University (and likewise for future examples from fantasy). "Extraterrestrial" to me at once suggests sci-fi. Just a flavor-thing, but still. Daranios (talk) 11:28, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I'd prefer to have a category which would keep together those which are not on the earth as we know it, rather than split into "Discworld" and perhaps "Mars" etc, so that sorting would bring them together. Can you think of a better term than "Extraterrestrial"?
 * I think the inclusion criterion is something like: "Is it a reliably sourced fictional institution teaching at degree level?" (and not just a division of a real institution, as in Oxbridge colleges or imaginary departments, faculties, institutions etc of real places). Weissnichtwo looks splendid.
 * Weissnichtwo has a doppelganger on the shore of Lake Wobegon! See https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol32/iss1/2/ and scroll through to its endnote on page 9 (26). I think it merits a mention. (Not least because, having found it by Googling, I was confused as to what level the fiction started - I checked the existence of Chulalongkorn University and the journal before reading through to that endnote.)  Pam  D  12:19, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
 * And "Weissnichtwo", to a Brit like me, reads as "Weissnich(t) 2"! It took a moment to re-parse it: the "two" is so obvious. Language is such fun. Pam  D  13:40, 21 July 2024 (UTC)