Talk:University of Reading

Halls of Residence
This section needs checking. Sgu03mbt added one list of halls, the universities halls of residence website (see External links) has a slightly different list, which excludes St David's and Mansfield Halls, but include a Whitenights Hall that isn't in Sgu03mbt's list. I've updated the article to include a superset of both, but I'm far from certain about the two that are missing from the University's own list. Can anyone confirm them, and make sure we are not double counting something that has multiple names. -- Chris j wood 12:41, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The University has only just taken over Witan Hall College - hopefully these links will help. The two pages on the halls are not linked yet on the Halls website but on the comparison table you can see the spaces for them! Hope these links help.sgu03mbt

Mansfield St. Davids Hall Witan International College

I took off mansfield and st davids and this is why: I emailed the vc about these of halls of residences as they were omitted from a document i saw last week, this is his paraphrased reply 'They come under Gyosei or rather, I think, under Witan International College. As such, they are not quite 'ours', since Witan is a separate company - legally - from the University.' It doesnt look like the University has plans to open them at moment, so not really halls of residence. But if they do bring a medical school here, im sure they will be redeveloped.

Ive now decided to re-add mansfield + st. davids but will make clear they are not used. Ta! DaveLewis 00:28, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The bulk of this section is a sort of whinge-fest, apparently part of a campaign by a student with a grievance. Is Wikipedia really the place for this? Some if is so trivial it is actually funny. Example:

"Also new in October 2006, students will no longer benefit from having their rooms cleaned once a week by the Hall's cleaners, and neither will they be provided with the basic pots and pans, crockery and cutlery necessary in the self catered halls. The catering arrangements in the catered halls are also under review, and there is no guarantee that the University will continue to provide 19 meals per week as has been traditional in the halls. There is no additional storage space being made available to students for their own pots and pans. The kitchens in self catered halls will no longer be cleaned by the staff on a daily basis on Monday to Friday, but will be cleaned twice per week. Additionally the kitchen bins are only scheduled for emptying twice per week. The number of cleaning staff has been cut in half."

I have deleted to spare any other readers.

Robert j Kerhsaw
The military historian Robert J Kershaw also attended Reading, no Wikipedia page. so add him as an alumni?

Proposed merge with Junction 11 Radio
Does not meet WP:GNG on its own Rogermx (talk) 02:36, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I've been bold and merged the one sentence into the student life section, I'm surprised the article lasted this long Aloneinthewild (talk) 20:29, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

Notable Alumni
I have restored the link to the Category: Notable Alumni of the University of Reading, which used to be here, but had been deleted or lost. At one time there were considerably more alumni named here. I would, however, raise two general points for discussion:

(1) what is the point of listing Alumni (or indeed Academics, in the preceding section) here, when they are all listed on the Category page? The main advantage I can see of listing them on the University page in that some brief description can be given of why they are notable.

(2) if any alumni are to be named on the University page, by what criteria are they to be chosen?

For example, if current MPs, such as Penny Mordaunt are to be listed, why not a previous MP, such as Rob Wilson? Can any more experienced Wikipedia editor advise whether there is any general guidance on this? It seems to me that, if some alumni are to be listed, then there is a case for including a greater number than are here at present. The current choice seems quite arbitrary. I cannot, by the way, understand the basis upon which Prof. Hafizu Abubakar and Ibrahim Abdullahi are included if they do not merit Wikipedia entries of their own.Ntmr (talk) 14:16, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Three weeks have passed since I raised the issue of why Prof. Hafizu Abubakar and Ibrahim Abdullahi had been included, and no one has responded, so I have deleted them. My general point about the criteria for including alumni in this section on this page, rather than only on the Alumni list page, has not been picked up.Ntmr (talk) 12:34, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Over five months have passed since I first raised the issue of who should appear in this section. There are now 376 alumni listed in the Category, and clearly there is no point in including all of them here. The handful who remained here were an entirely arbitrary selection, and were by no objective criteria the most distinguished. It therefore seems better to include no one here. So please do not add Alumni to the UoR page (as opposed to the category) until this has been discussed and a consensus reached. What criteria are adopted on other University pages?Ntmr (talk) 12:52, 23 June 2021 (UTC)