Talk:Western Sydney University

More on Parramatta

I've updated the parramatta campus section using historical info from http://www.whitlam.org/about/precinct.html lfom5608

Parramatta

I've deleted:

"An extension of the Parramatta campus in the Kensington districts is being planned for construction in 2009. The new campus will house both medical and optical facilities, as well as state of the art animal research laboratories in collaboration with the University of New South Wales."

As as far as I know this is inaccurate. Can a source for this information be provided? lfom5608

Improvements!

Having recently enrolled at UWS, I am fairly appalled at the standard of this article. Consequently, I think I'll fix it up.

I think the Southern Cross University article sets a good precedent as to how I envision this one. Both universities are fairly small, don't have a particularly exciting history or story and share the same basic components to make up an article.

I don't have much of a knowledge of UWS, having just started there and still getting the hang of things. However, anything is better than how it is now. Jarrod 01:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Cheers mate. I am a former UWS student and I applaud the work you are doing here!

I also feel it is likely, from the signatures in the history, that my friend Luke Fomiatti may have also contributed at some stage :P

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.32.242.152 (talk) 03:12, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Tarkovsky

---

I've put in a {{Infobox Australian University}}, but I'm not entirely sure how to work out the whole 'free_tag' and enrolment info. I know the current total number of students, but I can't find information separating undergraduate and graduate student populations. I'll just leave it as it is now, if I figure out how to fix it I will, but of course somebody else can save me the trouble =P The logo which was being used before (Image:Logo_large.JPG) was messing up the format of the Infobox, so I screenshotted it and uploaded the screenshot. While this has removed the formatting issue, the logo just seems too large now. It's in .png now instead of .jpg, so that might be responsible for the lack of ability to resize it. If others indicate that its size is unacceptable I'll resize it (or upload it as .jpg), but I'll leave it for now. If anybody has any images of the various campus grounds I'd love to see them added. I don't have a camera and I can't find any freely available images on the UWS website. Jarrod 03:50, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

---

Okedoke, I'm exhausted. I uploaded the union logos, but the looked ugly. They are available at Image:PAUWS.png, Image:Uwsconnect.gif and Image:Uwssa.png.

Dear lord, UWS Connect is NOT a student union, or association, it's a corporate entity owned by UWS. :P Jachin 16:29, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

I haven't quite got the hang of <br> and such, so it looks a bit rough at the moment.

I also need to make the campuses section tidy. The fact is, all campuses are pretty much equal in what courses they offer - none of them have any particular specialisation. It's just that the Parramatta and Penrith campuses are special in ways outside of their course content. The Penrith campus is the largest campus by area, and is the most intersting. The Parramatta campus is the most sought-after and is in the best location. The others don't have anything that makes them notable, so I can think of nothing else to do with them other than throw them in a list.
A list needs to be made including all the campuses, but somehow integrated into the detailed explanations of Parramatta and Penrith - without subtracting from the other campuses too much. Also, the Sydney CBD precinct has no mention as yet. If you dont know what this is, look here.

The article is also missing a Principle Officers list. This can be pretty easily sourced from here.

These ramblings are for my benefit as much as other people's, so don't think I'm just unloading everything to other people =P

I do realise the content of this article is less than optimal, and it could really benefit from someone who has a good knowledge of the university to add their insights. Also, this article has been written from the point of view of a student, and hence neglects the objective, community viewpoint most other university articles have. I believe this is a good feature of the article, because UWS doesn't have an amazingly interesting history and isn't subject to much study or thought, and I would really like the other university articles to have insights given to them by actual attending students, not just people who have studied the history and workings of the university. I realise this is more encyclopædiac, but hey, this is Wikipedia.

If you want to help but really don't know anything about the university, you can still just re-word the things I have written to make them sound a lot more formal and encyclopædiac. The links I have given in this talk should be enough to add a principle officers list and pretty up the Campuses section.

Please give me some feedback, and what kind of thing you would like to see in the article that I might be able to find out.
I want to add the statement given on the plaques put up around the university, which I think sums up the University's mission and purpose very well. I also want to talk about the university being placed in predominantly lower-class and uneducated areas, with its presence helping to break the cycle of poverty and crime in the areas of Western Sydney. However, I don't know how to do this without giving it a patronising spin, as I'm not from the western suburbs and tend to have prejudices about the whole area. The university campuses really are a haven from the crime and poverty of these towns, and they definately serve to bring down the barrier keeping people living in the western suburbs from getting a good education and bringing up the quality of life in the area.
Blah blah blah. Jarrod 06:49, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

this article

focuses too much on campuses and not enough on academia...which is the core of any uni. Michellecrisp 07:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Why protect this page. Aren't people allowed to make changes/corrections. What a pathetic thing to do. ==Fair use rationale for Image:UWS logo.png==

Image:UWS logo.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 07:36, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Why keep protecting this article?

It's about time that this article is allowed to be edited. Admin OP people should be allowed to bully poeple who want to state acurate information. That serves no purposes.

As it stands the information on this article is very out of date and shouldn't be relied upon by anyone.

This is not what wikipedia should be about!

I have to agree. Why does this need to be protected? The info here is way out of date. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.154.16.30 (talk) 06:10, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

DELETED DISCUSSION:

quit spamming

"The campus is noted for its law courses, although the Campbelltown campus has a history of producing more talented students (given the higher TER required for admission)." - the spammer

Actually, the Parramatta campus has higher UAI cut offs than Campbelltown campus for all courses that have a differing cut off across campuses. And in regard to Law - this is not exclusive to Campbelltown campus. And remember - there is no correlation between higher cut-offs and more talented graduates (especially when the higher cut off is merely a fictitious claim)--60.241.229.55 12:58, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Why protect this page. Aren't people allowed to make changes/corrections. What a pathetic thing to do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dristruth (talk • contribs) 04:14, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

No need to spam my userpage, Dristruth. You might like to check out this http://www.uac.edu.au/pdf/2007_uai_coffs_csp_main.pdf or actually read a UAC book before you attempt to have an opinion. (If you don't have the brains to read it actually shows the Parramatta campus and Campbelltown campus to have the same cut-off for law...or you could even try here http://www4.uac.edu.au/wap/uac8.aspx?method=exact&keywords=laws&course_code=&uais=&university=University+of+Western+Sydney&submit=%A0%A0Search%A0%A0) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.241.229.55 (talk) 13:35, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Why not un-protect the article? It has been seven months now. T568dx (talk) 12:24, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Pictures of UWS campus

I would like to put recent pictures that I took of two UWS campuses, the campbelltown and penrith campus into the UWS wikisite. I taken few pictures of the new medical building in campbelltown campus, but would like to put in other UWS campus pictures as well in the not so distant future. Just a little idea, I had in mind since other australian universities show pictures of their campuses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Uniads22 (talk • contribs) 10:37, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Pictures are good. :) If you'd like to read more about selection and hosting, you can take a look at Wikipedia:Images and Wikipedia:Image use policy. If you're not familiar with it already, before uploading you'll want to read over Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. When you're ready to upload, you can head over to Special:Upload. This page is currently protected, but it can be edited by users with an account at least four days old. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 12:36, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah..I got a couple of pics of the medical school building, put I only uploaded one so far..going to upload later on.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Uniads22 (talk • contribs) 22:49, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

uwsconnect

Uwsconnect is not for profit? Are you joking?
The 'services' they provide are billboard ads, stationary stores and overpriced crappy cafeterias. Jarrod (talk) 11:49, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

merge of UWS School of Law

Support Merge I'm proposing a merger on the basis that the current School of Law article does not have enough notability or context to justify a separate article. Michellecrisp (talk) 00:49, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

• Support doesn't warrant its own article. --Closedmouth (talk) 00:57, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
• Support not notable in isolation from the university it is part of. Nick Dowling (talk) 01:56, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
• SupportT568dx (talk) 02:58, 20 February 2009 (UTC)T568dx (talk) 23:59, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Done. T568dx (talk) 05:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Bob Carr and the university name

Did Bob Carr give his support for UWS to be named Chifley University during or before the Carr premiership? It isn't clear in the history section.T568dx (talk) 15:47, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

I've removed this as it is confusing. The NSW Labor government in 1987 proposed the name "Chifley University". Bob Carr as a member of the government evidently supported this. However, by the time he became premier the university had already been named UWS.--Jack Upland (talk) 07:40, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Predecessor's Names

State Records NSW lists these predecessor institutions: The access direction includes records of predecessor agencies including: Hawkesbury Agricultural College; Hawkesbury Agricultural College of Advanced Education; Westmead Teachers; College; Nepean College of Advanced Education; Milperra College of Advanced Education; Macarthur Institute of Higher Education and Chifley University http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/university_of_western_sydney_9785.asp

T568dx (talk) 06:12, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Semi-protection since January 2008 is overkill

How about un protecting the University of Western Sydney page? Sure, people will continue to vandalise it, but other universities' pages get plenty of vandalism. It is less difficult for new users to revert edits and update the page when there is no page protection. T568dx (talk) 02:57, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

This is not to address random vandalism, but a specific vandal with unstable IP. However, it's been protected for a year. Let's try it. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 11:57, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Blacktown campus and UWSCollege

isn't UWS College and by extension the blacktown campus considered a seperate sub entity and therefore does not constitute a Campus? it doesnt house any of the UWS courses these days from what i understand. The university even tried to divest of the campus until stupid politics got in the way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hatgreg (talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Information Box

In the interest of making the information box much nicer, I have two requests.

Can we please remove the first image (the blue banner) and replace it with the actual UWS Logo? (Seen here .(svg file) - http://www.filedropper.com/uwslogo

Also, can we replace the bottom image that says "University of Western Sydney" along with the logo to the .svg seen here - http://www.filedropper.com/uws Just because the .svg is crisper than the current .png file.

Apologies for the filedropper links - it's very hard to find somewhere that will hold .svg files. I assure you they are all virus-free.

The second .svg is available here too - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:University_of_Western_Sydney_logo.svg

The first is just the logo without the text.

Lastly, the picture of Parramatta's EA building looks very dull on an overcast day. May I suggest a much brighter, colourful image? See here - http://www.specifier.com.au/media/picture/2/7/1/0/27131-1_O.jpg — Preceding unsigned comment added by CameronSmith93 (talk • contribs) 08:21, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Notable Alumni

The notable alumni section really needs to be cut back, although most of the persons listed do have their own Wikipedia page does not make them notable; at least not when the least has grown to over 50 entries on the main article. If you really feel that these people are worth noting, make an additional page listing the staff and alumni but for now I'll but taking down the 'not so notable' alumni entries on the list in 24 hours if no one disagrees with my decision. YuMaNuMa (talk) 02:40, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

The Parramatta Female Orphan School

Seems to be some confusion in this article. The Parramatta Female Orphan School was never a precursor school of UWS. The connection is just that the building housing the Female Orphan School is now part of the Parramatta Campus. There is no institutional or educational link. The history is roughly: Female Orphan School, Protestant Orphan School, Parramatta Hospital for the Insane, Rydalmere Hospital for the Insane, Rydalmere Mental Hospital, Rydalmere Psychiatric Hospital. As part of deinstitutionalisation, the psychiatric hospital was wound down, and then in 1995 UWS bought the site which included the rather derelict Female Orphan School building. The Female Orphan School building itself was disused for about 30 years from the 60s to the 00s. I hope that clarifies things and stops people from making the ludicrous claim that the Female Orphan School is a predecessor institution of the same type as the Hawkesbury Agricultural School. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.240.207.146 (talk) 14:36, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

Change to WSU

I question whether the name has officially changed. Here, [1], on the website, we read: "Statutory and Policy Framework: University of Western Sydney Act 1997: This Act establishes the University as a corporate entity and sets out its object and functions." Is the name officially still UWS, with WSU effectively a name that it is "trading as"? The webpage provides a link to the Act. Section 6 states: "The University is a body corporate under the name of the University of Western Sydney." What wording will be used on degrees? A comparison can be made with the University of New South Wales which has rebranded itself UNSW, but is still officially the University of New South Wales. When it changed its name in 1958 from the NSW University of Technology, it did so by Act of Parliament. I can't find anything that clarifies this.--Jack Upland (talk) 07:56, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

It takes time to get legislation changed, and it seems pretty obvious they've decided to get on with it before the formal name of the Act is. We'd still have an out of date article if we refused to update in the meantime. The Drover's Wife (talk) 08:21, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Is there confirmation that the legislation is going to be changed???--Jack Upland (talk) 09:17, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

I have actually been told that the legislation is not going to be changed.--Jack Upland (talk) 11:03, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

And as of today it hasn't been.--Jack Upland (talk) 22:37, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

It seems it has now been changed: NSW Act. alexie 04:46, 21 July 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alpapan (talk • contribs)

Yes, it now has been, and I've updated the article.--Jack Upland (talk) 05:03, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Conflict of interest

It appears that the participants in the current edit war about complementary medicine are directly involved in the dispute.--Jack Upland (talk) 05:45, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

This is not an edit war but simply stating the facts about what WSU stands for. It is extremely important that current and future students know this in order to make informed choices. I therefore suggest to add the following paragraph: “Early in 2016 some controversy surrounding the University's full support of complementary medicine emerged in the press. Former employees, as well as eminent scientists, criticised the biased and unbridled support of the University for complementary medicines such as homeopathy, acupuncture, energy healing, Reiki etc. The main controversial aspect was the continued support of these pseudo-scientific fields in exchange for continued funding from the naturopathic Jacka Foundation of Natural Therapies. The University has since reacted to the critique by bestowing an honorary fellowship upon Judy Jacka, vice-chairperson of the Jacka Foundation. As a result, the current vice-chancellor Prof Barney Glover, the Dean of the School of Science and Health Prof Gregory Kolt and the Director of the National Institute of Complementary Medicine Prof Alan Bensoussan were nominated for the prestigious annual bent spoon award of the Australian Skeptics society bestowed upon the "perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle".

Students deserve to know this in order to know what they can expect regarding scientific training. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fkooy1 (talk • contribs) 06:19, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

I was concerned that you appear to be one of the people involved in the controversy (and the person who made the Bent Spoon nomination), and that your edits were removed by someone who appears to work for WSU. It appears that both of you have a conflict of interest under Wikipedia guidelines. I think the controversy could be mentioned here, but it has to be in a neutral and measured way.--Jack Upland (talk) 07:55, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Would a statement, containing only independent references, such as this be OK? : "Early in 2016 some controversy surrounding the University's full support of complementary medicine emerged in the press. Former employees, as well as eminent scientists, criticised the biased and unbridled support of the University for complementary medicines such as homeopathy, acupuncture, TCM, etc. The main controversial aspect was the continued support of these pseudo-scientific fields in exchange for continued funding from the naturopathic Jacka Foundation of Natural Therapies" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fkooy1 (talk • contribs) 08:45, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

I think it should stick to what the news media say. Also, I note that the other editor has been censoring this page for about a year, obviously as part of her job at WSU.--Jack Upland (talk) 08:31, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Here is a link where I explain why this addition is so important: https://frankvanderkooy.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/can-or-should-one-use-wikipedia-to-share-information-regarding-the-unbridled-support-of-pseudosciences-by-western-sydney-university/Fkooy1 (talk) 10:08, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

I have informed the editor who appears to work for the university of the discussion at WP:COIN, and also gave them a notice about the rules regarding conflict of interest. If they are indeed a paid employee and contravening the terms of use surrounding paid editing, then administrators will take appropriate steps to rectify that. --Drm310 (talk) 17:32, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Some new controversial information has come to light regarding WSU. In 2008 a thesis was published in which they describe and promote the positive effects of Rhino horn as medicine. Obviously I would like to add a sentence about this issue on their wikipedia page but I decided that I should first ask. Here is the information: http://edzardernst.com/2016/07/promoting-rhino-horn-as-medicine-at-an-australian-university-has-this-contributed-to-the-exponential-rise-in-rhino-poaching/#commentsFkooy1 (talk) 13:42, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

In my opinion, there is a conflict of interest if you are citing a blog post that you wrote yourself. And a blog post is not a good source. And I don't think a thesis is notable. Many theses are submitted to a university.--Jack Upland (talk) 19:40, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Well, a thesis is notable when it contains Rhino horn as medicine. It will probably make it into the newspapers so if that happens I will let you know. Fkooy1 (talk) 11:22, 4 August 2016 (UTC)

An article appeared in the Medical Journal Of Australia "Industry partnerships continue to muddy waters" discussing the issues around WSU accepting funding from Industry in exchange for 'validating' pseudoscientific complementary medicines. http://www.doctorportal.com.au/mjainsight/2017/3/industry-partnerships-continue-to-muddy-waters/

Another article was published discussing the University's attempts to remove their name form the Bent Spoon nomination page - to no avail. http://www.skeptics.com.au/2016/12/16/skeptics-stand-by-bent-spoon-nomination

And another where the " NICM offers alternative facts regarding alternative medicine" http://www.skeptics.com.au/2017/02/10/nicm-offers-alternative-facts-about-alternative-medicine

Can these three articles be added, in some way, to the recent history paragraph? Fkooy1 (talk) 14:39, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

I think that this issue is being given too much space and that it is treated in a partisan way.--Jack Upland (talk) 13:06, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

“Clean me”

This article could do with a reorganisation of its categories. Also more info on prominent academics. And I’m sure there are more notable people to list in that category. Get on it peeps. Locochoko (talk) 04:49, 10 March 2019 (UTC)