Talk:University of Aberdeen

Vandalised
This page has clearly been vandalised - please can you repair it! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.133.7.37 (talk) 10:52, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, people were playing around with the alumni section, but I've just cleaned it up a little so the list format can't be manipulated by 'vandals'. The University of Aberdeen page needs to be tidied up quite a bit! —Preceding unsigned comment added by U01srh8 (talk • contribs) 16:09, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Number of applicants???
"this year" the number of applicants are equal to the number of students at the school? how is that over subscribed? harvard is getting 20,000+ applicants for less then 2,000 spots. and what year is that refering to???

Response - In 2006 Aberdeen had 13,000 applicants for around 3,000 places (12,000 undergraduates divided by 4) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.131.88.44 (talk) 16:43, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

King's College original name
My source for the assertion that King's College was originally known as St. Mary's College is the University's own "Aberdeen - an ancient university", as published within many editions of the undergraduate prospectus - I have 1994 and 1995 copies to hand for verification. I don't see the claim repeated on their website but have no reason to doubt it. However, I can find no evidence of the first date at which the name King's College was used, and it would be better to have this for the article. Anybody? Kierant 22:40, 14 November 2005 (UTC)


 * There is this from the University of Glasgow St Mary's College, Old Aberdeen--Samesawed (talk) 12:10, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Further evidence: https://www.aberdeenheritage.org.uk/building-a-history/old-aberdeen/ 137.50.184.135 (talk) 14:53, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Ancient universities of Scotland
Why has the infobox for the ancient universities of Scotland been deleted? Benson85 20:47, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, students were not even authorized to speak anything but Latin in the early years of the University. Hypotyposis 02:53, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Scottish Parliament
In May 2002 the Church of Scotland required its building back from the Parliament during the General Assembly; the Parliament met at King's for the duration. I think that's significant enough to add to this article, perhaps at the end of the first paragraph of the "buildings" section which discusses King's. But I'd like to see others' opinions before adding it. – Kieran T  ( talk  15:39, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

University ratings
(I'm posting this to all articles on UK universities as so far discussion hasn't really taken off on WikiProject Universities.)

There needs to be a broader convention about which university rankings to include in articles. Currently it seems most pages are listing primarily those that show the institution at its best (or worst in a few cases). See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Universities. Timrollpickering 22:06, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

weblink
before coming to Wiki, I had tried to get onto its' website. However either my computer needs throwing out the window or the site is inaccessible. Please can someone else try to get on to the UofA website? Would appreciate a response either way! It is most curious... Thanks!

Cookie Monster 16:26, 26 July 2007 (UTC)


 * The Aberdeen Uni website is functioning normally. --Breadandcheese 18:49, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

List of Rectors
The list Rector of the University of Aberdeen is in a poor state due to limited records. If anyone knows where to find a partial or full list please can you seeif you can add anything. Timrollpickering 13:22, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Gifford Lectures, Word Festival, etc
I only found out that Gifford Lectures are sometimes held in Aberdeen while browsing wiki! I think a section listing the notable academic events held at Aberdeen would be great. 00:56, 6 January 2008.

Latin names
What's the idea behind adding made-up Latin names to UK universities including this one? The motto is widely used at the university, but the name appears to have been "translated" by somebody filling in such names for various places. This isn't actually wrong, but it seems misleading - what other articles, apart from those on species, carry Latin translations?


 * The Latin name was not made up. Latin was the common language amongst academics and church ministers.  In fact Latin masses were still being in England in the 50s / 60s (see Cherie Booth's autobiography).  It is only natural that an university that was established by Papal Bull and educated church ministers to have a Latin name.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pelikan4001 (talk • contribs) 14:08, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Latin was one of the chief languages of academia in Britain until recently. Indeed, of the ancient universities, many were - I should imagine - originally incorporated in their Latin names and often still award their degrees in Latin. --Breadandcheese (talk) 21:32, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Notice of requested move
It has been proposed to move Aberdeen to Aberdeen, Scotland or Aberdeen city, and to move Aberdeen (disambiguation) to Aberdeen. The discussion about this is here. --Una Smith (talk) 16:23, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Debater, and other issues
The length of the section on the Debater is completely inappropriate. This is an encyclopaedia article, and it must be remembered that the relative significance of a debating society to a university as a whole is fairly slight. It should be incorporated into the 'students' section. In other parts, there is not even a summary of the governance structure, and I question the merits of listing every school within the university. --Breadandcheese (talk) 17:43, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

alumni
Are Graeme Cantlie and James Cantlie the same person? I think so but didn't have time to investigate fully so didn't change it. James Cantlie has his own wikipedia page Shephia (talk) 21:43, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

No main picture
This page has had it's university coat of arms removed, leaving it looking bare and empty - Could someone please replace it?
 * I found a public domain image of the coat of arms, so I've placed that in for now. Preferably we would get a fair-use/free colour rendition of the full armorial achievement. This might not be possible however.--Harkain (talk) 00:41, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I've found an image on the German Wikimedia Commons that would be suitable should it be transferred, I'll leave the link here. Curlymanjaro (talk) 19:30, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Uncited Accommodation Claims
The Head of Communications at the University of Aberdeen recently edited the Accommodation Section to include the claim "by 2017 there was a surplus of accommodation in halls of residence, particularly in the lower priced options". As I have not been able to find any relevant announcements by the UoA would this be WP:NOR? While this is common knowledge on UoA campus should it not be cited?

Kittsville (talk) 15:09, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Bloated alumni section
The alumni section is ridiculously overlong, and I agree with 's trimming. , I would strongly suggest splitting it off into a List of University of Aberdeen people page, as its chances of surviving here long-term are basically nil. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 09:56, 22 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I am inclined to agree with this proposal. &#8213; Susmuffin Talk 10:02, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

The Alumni List is a poor substitute; and it appears rather arbitrary to 'trim' given the standard for other university alumni lists on Wikipedia is equally as long. Can you not do the work of adding footnotes instead or making it shorter instead of just blitzing it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MrCaxton (talk • contribs) 20:46, 28 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Whatever the decision, I am currently, rather slowly, providing citations for these people. So far, the only one I am having problems with is George Wishart. While some sources say that he studied at Aberdeen University, others admit that this is speciulation. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd edition) simply says on page 1757 that "the facts of his early life are obscure." I am tempted to remove his name from the list. His Wikipedia page, in the lede, asserts that he was educated at Aberdeen University (citing a book by journalist and historian Joseph Irving, only to tone it down to "He may have graduated M.A., probably at King's College, Aberdeen" in the body. That it is speculation is definitely supported by Rev. Charles Rivers' Life of George Wishart (Edinburgh, William Paterson, 1876) which notes: "As his name does not occur in the registers of any of the Scottish colleges, it is extremely probable that he was sent by his maternal uncle to one or more of the universities of Germany." (p.6)(emphasis added). In the same book, Rivers also notes that "William, third son of Sir John Wishart of Pitarrow, and his wife, Jean Douglas, entered the University of King's College, Aberdeen, in 1606, and there graduated in 1612." (p. 93). The only problem this leaves me is what to do with the main Wishart page ... --Samesawed (talk) 16:47, 2 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Working through the Alumni list, I am coming to the conclusion that it is just a poorly put together collection of people someone has felt are notable, and who have an academic connection with the university. It is far from complete and, as there is a separate page for a List of University of Aberdeen people, which is really in need of sorting out, I do think that this section should be removed, but with a link to the separate list, which should be tidied up into properly delineated sections with emendations, including the removal of names, where necessary.--Samesawed (talk) 16:02, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

I agree that the alumni list should be subject to evidence-based pruning, and I appreciate your work. This should also be applied consistently across the other universities.

On George Wishart, from which you’ve only gone off one narrow source:

Malcolm Broun: Since it appears clear that Wishart learned ancient Greek at a fairly early stage of his education and since it is asserted in many places that at the beginning of the sixteenth century only King's College at Aberdeen taught ancient Greek to their pupils, it seems likely that he was educated firstly at that college. https://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/JSSSH/article/download/7156/7620

Occam’s razor. As with the claims that Oxford was founded by Alfred the Great. MrCaxton (talk) 10:12, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

'Ceremonial use' of colleges
The article seems to give the impression the Aberdeen is a collegiate university, describing how:

 'The university comprises three colleges—King's College, Marischal College, and Christ's College—that are now mainly ceremonial.'

It refers to this twice in the article, both times unsourced. (The page for Christ's also describes it as a constituent college, again unsourced). I can find no evidence that they are used for any administrative/ceremonial role: they do not appear to be used in the sense of constituent colleges at all, with no mention of them by the University. It doesn't seem you can be a 'member of Marischal College', if you get what I mean, but that's what the article seems to imply. Anyone know what this 'ceremonial' role is? Dreichh (talk) 21:55, 29 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Aberdeen is not a collegiate university. King's and Marischal were once separate institutions, but they merged to form "one university and college" in 1860. The names are still used for the respective campuses, but it's not possible to be a "King's student" or a "Marischal student". (You can't even study on the Marischal campus anymore, since the university deemed it surplus to requirements in 2006 and leased it out to the city council.) Christ's College seems to be the exception. It didn't join the university until 1936 and still has its own master and scholars. Zacwill (talk) 10:15, 20 December 2023 (UTC)