Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Marbella University


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was DELETE. postdlf (talk) 03:12, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Marbella University

 * – ( View AfD View log )

This is a directory entry for a private university in Marbella. I tried to verify the contents but there are very few Google hits and virtually al of them are simply churnalism, reprinting of press releases from the company itself. The creator has no other contributions to Wikipedia. The place has only been open a year, which probably explains the absence of any proper analytical sources about it. There's no evidence of accreditation but accreditation in Spain is unbelievably lax anyway. Guy (Help!) 11:04, 6 March 2011 (UTC)  Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Ron Ritzman (talk) 00:02, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete no need for this article. Gabesta449   edits  ♦  chat  21:41, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Schools-related deletion discussions.  —• Gene93k (talk) 13:39, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Spain-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 13:39, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Delete An unaccredited private university which has been around less than 2 years. Delete unless someone can find multiple reliable and independent sources with significant coverage (need not be in English) to show that this school satisfies WP:ORG. Edison (talk) 20:17, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep - long-standing consensus is that degree-awarding bodies are notable. None of being private, less than two years old or unaccredited affects that. Indeed, we state that this is unaccredited so that imparts valuable information to prospective students. TerriersFan (talk) 20:05, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep (changing to Delete, see below.) It exists and grants degrees, so consensus at WP:SCHOOL is that it deserves an article. --MelanieN (talk) 02:15, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Long-standing consensus that unaccredited degree-awarding bodies are notable? That doesn't sound right.  I doubt that long-standing consensus is that any laser printer that "awards" degrees from the back of a Ukrainian tavern is notable.  What sort of printer output does this long-standing consensus consider "degree-awarding" if accreditation is not what makes it a degree? --Closeapple (talk) 02:54, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete. Fails Notability (organizations and companies); no third party evidence this school even operates on a regular basis, let alone meets any Wikipedia criteria.  (I have no idea what to say further about the claims of "long standing consensus" by two rather experienced editors above, other that there is certainly not Wikipedia consensus that a subject can unilaterally qualify itself for a Wikipedia article just by itself claiming to be something, like an "degree-awarding body", without anyone else recognizing its claim.)  In any case, WP:ORG is the controlling guideline: "No organization is exempt from this requirement, no matter what kind of organization it is. If the individual organization has received no or very little notice from independent sources, then it is not notable simply because other individual organizations of its type are commonly notable or merely because it exists".  Schools are explicitly included in WP:ORG: "A ... school ... or service is notable if it has been the subject of significant coverage in secondary sources.  Such sources must be reliable, and independent of the subject."  WP:SCHOOL points to WP:ORG for notability guidelines.  Per WP:PROVEIT, it is up to the editors to provide these WP:Reliable sources when making claims.  In this article, the only footnotes are two reprints of press release paragraphs.  So, no reliable third party sources about this university at all, let alone enough to establish WP:ORG, or even third party evidence of this school operating on a regular basis.  The operator of this school is also behind "Mallorca University", "Benidorm University" (claiming opening October 2011), "Benidorm Business School" (claiming opening October 2011), "European Business College" ("a satellite campus of Marbella University", claiming opening October 2011 in Benidorm), the "RC Institute for Global Individuation" (RCIGI) and the "Individuation Academy".  Most of these domains are hiding behind a domain privacy provider that itself is hiding behind a private mailbox (i.e. drop box) at a UPS Store (a.k.a. Mail Boxes Etc.) in Bellevue, Washington.  Most of the external links on the left side and in the alleged "campus news" sections of these "school" sites link to commercial hospitality directories/link farms run (from the same postal address as shown in this article) by a relative of the "university" owner. --Closeapple (talk) 08:33, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Wow, Closeapple. I am impressed by your research. What is the status of this item from Euro Weekly News? Is Euro Weekly News not a Reliable Source? I agree the item reads like a press release. How about this from spanishnews.es? --MelanieN (talk) 14:12, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Both are press releases not disclosed as such by the alleged "news" sites:
 * Euro Weekly News so-called "article" is the same press release duplicated at http://prlog.org/10654190 and about 35 other places on Google; the picture is from &mdash; which, as a side note, is probably a stock photo, which my Spanish friend described as "very very very USA. None of those people have lived in Spain, that is for sure."
 * spanishnews.es is owned by Absolute Imperium/Crystal Consulting, the publicity/link farm operation I discussed above: Absolute Imperium is owned by Gregor Schellhammer; these "universities" are owned by Eduard (Edward) Schellhammer (named in the press release). The "news" site and "university" site are each publishing gratuitous publicity containing links to each other: see, for example, Marbella University's "news" http://www.marbellauniversity.com/mu-students-at-the-villa-padierna/ &mdash; in which two women are posing with the head of a hotel that is a client of Absolute Imperium, and whose hotel main website isn't linked directly, but instead linked as marbellahotelsspain.net, one of Absolute Imperium's paid portals. --Closeapple (talk) 03:13, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
 * You've convinced me. Changing my vote to delete based on doubt whether the school is actually a real degree-granting institution. --MelanieN (talk) 03:52, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.