Talk:University of Stirling

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Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

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The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · refresh)

On it's way to GA, but the references are poorly presented - each one should provide an article name, publication date. publisher and retrieval date as required. There are also too many lists - they should be presented in prose style. The alumni would ideally have references too - as should any other uncited material of substance. Ben MacDuiTalk/Walk 19:17, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
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B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.

Y'know, I'm not sure this page's assertion that Airthrey Loch is artificial is really true. Certainly it's been messed around with quite a lot, but I do believe there was a significant body of water there before the univerity was built. Perhaps someone can find some documentary evidence, either way? -- Finlay McWalter 01:07, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for moving the pic, I put it low because in the future I'll dig out some other pics I have of the uni and put a more general one at the top. But of course I can move the loch one down when I do that.  :) I'll see what I can find out about the loch... Fabiform 20:00, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I found several refernces to the loch being man-made. There is some running water (otherwise it would stagnate), and I've seen some references to springs also, but I think that it's fair to say it was man made - the park was extensively landscaped by a pupil of C. Brown apparently.

I've been meaning to work on this article, maybe I'll get to it soon. fabiform | talk 20:46, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Yep, you're right. It's obvious that it's been extensively landscaped (they didn't seem to try too hard to disguise the fact) but I was always unclear about where the water came from, or to where it went. We do need an overview photo showing the campus as a whole (which would, it seems, entail my climbing Dumyat on a cold day). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:29, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Ooh, it's working again!
I've had a look through my old photos, and I don't have one of the uni that would be useful. I hearby invoke Wikipedia:nominations for freezing to death. ;) (I suppose the uni might have a promotional pic they'd let us use?). fabiform | talk 00:36, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I am a current student of this university, the geography department describe the loch as natural, not man-made.

Thanks. Do they (or the uni in general) have a webpage or offline resource that says this? We're bound by the rules of WP:CITE to get sources which backup our articles. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:19, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes. In the book "The University of Stirling, Beginnings & Today" by R.G. Bomont (University of Stirling, 1995) (ISBN 185769025, Library Code K 8.941 STI) there is a history of the Airthrey Estate prior to the university development. On page 5 of the book the man-made nature of the loch is mentioned twice...
  • 'Robert Haldane built Airthrey Castle in 1791 to a design by Robert Adam and devoted much time over a ten year period in beautifying the estate, transplanting many fully grown trees and excavating the loch covering some 23 acres which still adorns the estate."
  • 'The Gardners' Magazine of 1842 describes Airthrey as having "a beautiful varied park and large artificial lake"'.


[edit] University ratings

(I'm posting this to all articles on UK universities as so far discussion hasn't really taken off on Wikipedia: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#University ratings. Timrollpickering 22:07, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for reassessment

References can be a bore, but whilst many of them will pass muster at GAC, some will not. The first should read:

Financial Statments 2006-7 (2007)(pdf) University of Stirling. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
The are typos in the last two.
You might find Wikipedia:WikiProject Scotland/Assessment/FA helpful, although you don't need to be quite as fastidious as this for a GA.
Ratings and alumni are lists and need to be turned into prose per previous comments.
Take a good look at other relevant GA's like East Carolina University (there is a list at WP:GA).

When you have done all that either ask for a 'peer review', or if you are confident just take it to WP:GAC. The article is nowhere near an 'A' rating yet and WP:SCO reviews cannot provide GA status. Hope that's helpful. Ben MacDuiTalk/Walk 11:50, 4 January 2008 (UTC)