Talk:University of Bristol

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Contents

[edit] POV dispute, November 2002

Moved POV and irrelevant material, needs rewriting/correcting


It was the first UK University to admit women on the same basis as men. The university is one of the largest employers in the area.

The university offers a diverse range of courses, but is most well known for it's Medicine, Law and Engineering faculties. In 2001 Bristol University had the highest intake ratio of any British university with 11 applications to every place, the final intake of 2001 had an average A-Level score of 28.6 points.

The university has been regarded as being elitist, taking most of its students from private schools. The university is trying to shake off this image, but despite having one of the higest application-to-place ratio is failing to make any significant progress.

In recent years the relationship between university and students has become strained with the vice-chancelor Eric Thomas advocating that the university should move away from undergraduate teaching and towards becoming a pure research university.


Among university properties are included the student residency at Goldney Hall which is a popular location for filming with the Chronicles of Narnia, the House of Eliott and Berkeley Square being filmed there.

I think this deletion was a bit harsh. The 3rd and 4th paragraphs need a bit of work, specifying who believes these things, and what opposing views are held. The first two don't seem to be a problem unless they can be shown to be factually incorrect, and I'm willing to trust Imran in the mean time. The last paragraph is trivial but relevant. I'm tempted to put most of this back... --rbrwr

I agree - all this info is interesting and relevant and most of it is simply fact, so there's no POV to worry about. I've put it all back, with the exception of the bit about relations twixt uni and students becoming strained, which probably does need some citation or evidence. I suppose I could have left out the second sentence of para 3, but it fits in with what I know of the place, so I let it be. Of course, if the stated facts are wrong, they need to be corrected, but without any evidence that they are indeed incorrect, I too am prepared to believe Imran. --Camembert
Thanks, Cam.
Some info on state-school participation is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1719381.stm where you will see that "most from private schools" is incorrect - it's 57% state 43% independent. This is still one of the largest proportion of independent school pupils among UK Universities. I will change this (in the article, that is).
A list of larget employers in the former Avon area is at http://www.jsptu-avon.gov.uk/publications/documents/keystats2.pdf - UoB is tenth, with five of the nine above it being based largely outside the City of Bristol.
The University's website is down, apparently for the whole weekend.
--rbrwr 20:56 Nov 15, 2002 (UTC)

[edit] Prestige

I thought that prestige claim was a bit strong, and pulled it. I KNOW it is a great Uni but so are lots fo others and we might need to itnroduce that smae comment ot another 20 who can all make the same claim - I don;t see how it helped the article. Others may differ. It would have been better in a way not coming from a Br Uni IP address! :) 82.35.17.203 18:21, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, I recognised the IP address. Probably a student in Badock Hall to be precise. Several people there are experimenting with Wikipedia. See also this edit. CGS 11:27, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC).
The IP address indicates it's from Bristol's biochemistry department. Seems to have been a sudden increase in contributors from bristol uni, when I checked about a year ago there were only three of us (me, a CS Phd and a first year medic). --Imran 16:54, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Shows how much *you* know. (And make of my ip what you will :P ) 132.185.240.120
Well there's also me. I'm trying to persuade a few of my friends to try editing, as loads of them use it for work. CGS 19:53, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC).
I haven't met you have I ?, do you know many 3rd/4th year CS students ? --Imran 02:26, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] The Wills family

This article claims that the Henry Overton Wills died in 1911, but the BBC [1] claim he founded a tabacco company in 1786, so I'm guessing one of those is wrong. The museum was left to the city by William Henry Wills in 1904, was this the Wills with the memorial tower? --Steinsky 02:34, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Never mind, it was Henry Overton Wills III [2]. --Steinsky 02:34, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] A level points

removed: "the final intake of 2001 had an average A-Level score of 28.6 points out of a possible 30". This sentance seems fairly irrelavent, plus it is inacurate: 30 is (or was, I belive they have now multiplied the scores by 10 in the new scoreing system) only the maximum scroe if you only took 3 A-Levels (I, for example, got 32...)Iain 10:55, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I think it is relevant to give some hard data to show that Bristol is taking top students; however you are right that "out of 30" is inaccurate. It mihgt be better to compare it to the average across all A level students for that year, or against the average for other prestigious universities: Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, etc. I'll look into this if I have time. By the way, the new scoring system (the UCAS Tariff) starts at 120 for a grade A in a full A level, and takes in many more qualifications, so it's not simply a multiplication by 10. --rbrwr± 12:09, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Average points per candidate for 17/18 year olds in schools and colleges in 2000/01 was 17.7 (for A/AS levels only) and 17.3 (including AGNVQs/AVCEs)[3]. Average was 25.6 for UCL entrants that year (if I read this correctly:[4]). 29.5 at Oxford based on figures in [5], though that really does seem to be on the basis of the best 3, so a maximum of 30 pts. --rbrwr±

Hmmm... I see your point about relevance. Not sure if the data your showing here can be usefully integrated in to this article though... the 17.7 score was per a-level candidate, not University applicant, and useing the Oxford figures might sugest that Oxford is considered somesort of benchmark to aspire to (a sugestion that I, as a Bristol graduate, would disagree with!)Iain 15:27, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yes, those are rough notes, really - just a motley collection of whatever statistics I could find in my lunch hour. They're all measuring the A level points of variously defined groups of people, probably in slightly different ways. I wouldn't want to draw any conclusions from them. I will have another look, though. --rbrwr± 18:28, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)
More rough notes: By UCAS's definiton (see "Grade"), old-style A level points max out at 30. The UCAS annual datasets break applicants down into 5 point wide bands (26-30, 21-25, etc.), which is not very useful. I bet UCAS has what I really want, which is a "league table" of universities by points-per-entrant, but not in public. --rbrwr± 19:52, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] New Page

I've subtantially expanded this page to give it some heart and soul. There is considerable detail here but it is all relevant and I think I have avoided POV. I have tried to cite references for nearly everything, but some things are only availble via subscription services or restricted Uni webpages. Such things are nevertheless public domain since I have only reported e.g. the outcome of the fight between the Privy Council and Court, rather than the details of the minutes of the meetings in question.

There are new pages detailing the Uni's degrees and academic dress, too - see the links. I've also moved the alumni onto their own page (they're special people, after all) and it was getting too long to stay here. Additionally, I've created a new category for UoB alumni, and added that to all the people so far on the list.

There is also a new category for the University itself. Apart from these new pages, I've added the existing images to the category.

The Governance section is length and could stand alone - can we have a discussion about that?

Splash 04:04, Jun 2, 2005 (UTC)

Nice work. It lacked a leadoff paragraph, so I've given it one. Using h3 for that quote from the charter was a bit OTT, so I've toned it down. I've also put the lists of residences into wiki table sysntax. --rbrwr± 08:22, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Numerous minor edits a minute ago were:

  • Infobox tweaked: Uni of Bristol founded in 1909 (no such thing before Charter), not 1876, so reversed positions of dates. Baronesses are properly styled 'The'.
  • Tweaked the leadoff and added mention of teaching.
  • Added mention of teaching to match up with research.
  • Mentioned 2004 admissions, since leaving it at 2001 seemed out of date.
  • Provided some internal linkage, particularly in Governance section.
  • Various wikifications.
  • A few minor rephrasings here and there.
- Splash 19:07, Jun 2, 2005 (UTC)

[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 22:21, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

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