Talk:Leiden University

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come on people. University of Leiden might be the oldest university- but it is subjective to state that it is the most famous university in NL...

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to…) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. JFW | T@lk 23:56, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)


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[edit] University of Leiden vs Leiden University

Should it be "University of Leiden" or "Leiden University" ? York University and University of York are two different schools in two different countries. On the website of Leiden University, the school is never referred to as "University of Leiden". Wikipedia should be more careful with names like these .... -- 199.71.174.100 21:13, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

That's correct, the title should be: Leiden University (nevertheless: in Dutch: Universiteit Leiden), or at least, that's what the Board of the University officially decided last year that the university should be called, so I guess we should move the article. Sixtus 23:29, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
We'll need someone with sysop powers to move the page properly, right ? -- 199.71.174.100 06:53, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
No, you need to have a login and a certain number of edits. I can do the move if there is consensus here that Leiden University is the proper name, which I think it is (although in Dutch it's Universiteit Leiden). JFW | T@lk 07:33, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
No, you need to be an admin, because the redirect has been edited. Uppland 08:27, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
A move is motivated because of the current official name, but it should still be pointed out that in a historical perspective either usage is correct. In the early modern period and until recently, individual universities could even in official contexts be known under various native, Latin, or occasionally other foreign, names, neither of which is retroactively incorrect because of a recent tendency to create uniform university "brands" and graphic programmes and all that, modelled on marketing and corporate identity schemes developed within the private business sector. Accordingly, there is no need to change every link in every article to Leiden University just because it is the official English name today. In many cases, University of Leiden may fit the context better. As far as I know (and I'm not from Leiden or the Netherlands, nor do I study there), an unqualified reference to Leiden (when implicitly refering to an academic institution rather than the town, as in "he studied astronomy in Leiden", or "he ws a professor in Leiden") can only mean one specific and very well-known university. The same thing is true for Groningen, Heidelberg, Cambridge, Tübingen or Uppsala (my own university). It is not like many U.S. universities which have confusingly similar names (like University of Miami - Miami University, or New York University - City University of New York - State University of New York etc). Uppland 08:27, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

I forgot. I'm too used to just moving things after deleting the redirect. Anyway, it's been done now. JFW | T@lk 12:08, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. -- 199.71.174.100 06:03, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] editing infobox

I tried to edit the info box with the amount of nobel prizes (4), obtained by htis university, however, my changes did not show up. Am I doing something wrong? kind regards.

It is not the type of data that goes into the infobox (only predetermined types do). In either case, it is very difficult to determine such numbers in a fair way, as some U.S. universities (in particular) count every Nobel laureate who has ever been a visiting professor for a few months. It would be better of you add this in the main text of the article, including the actual names of the Nobel laureates in question. Uppland 09:04, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Internation reputation my ***

"International reputation" my *** (I should know, I'm an alumnus). This page has obviously been made by the Leiden University public relations department. Besides, the university of Leuven (1425) is the oldest university in The Netherlands, as Leuven was part of The Netherlands back then.

I agree with you that this article is written from a too sympathatic point of view, but that is no reason to delete relavant and independently verifiable information. Wikipedia is not a place to express your personal problems with the University of Leiden. C mon 11:08, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alumni and other people associated with...

This list is getting long and confusing - with a few exceptions it doesn't say what the alumni are famous for, or if they were students, academics or whatever. Does anyone in the know want to try separating out the list? Timrollpickering 14:24, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

A good start would be to create two new categories, say, Category:Leiden University alumni and Category:Leiden University faculty, and add links to these categories from the respective pages. That way, one would know better what's in and what's out. By the way, what is the justification for the latest additions -- Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela? Were these people affiliated with Leiden University in some fashion? It may be something known, but I could not find mention of that fact in the respective pages. Turgidson 00:23, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

they received honorate doctorates, as did Einstein and Queen Beatrice, both Churchill and Mandela came to Leiden to receive the doctorates.

Well, OK. But this would stretch the definition of alumnus. To make things less confusing, and hopefully more precise, it may be advisable to have a separate category, such as doctor honoris causa. And, by the way, the heading "with the Leiden University" is not grammatical English. Turgidson 16:52, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

true, but doesn't it say alumni and people associated with Leiden university? But i agree it would make sense to make some categories.