Organization of discussion about universities . . .

[roddy]

I mentioned this idea before, but wanted to hold it up for ridicule and approval before I actually went ahead and did anything as it's a relatively significant change.

Basically the current arrangements for discussion of universities mean that:

1) We don't have one specific location per university, so information gets spread around over time.

2) Information could be found be searching for (for example) Peking University, Beijing University, Beida, PKU, 北京大学，北大。 Chinese universities just have lots of names, which is a bit of an indexing problem, especially when you don't have the resources of Google.

3) The lack of a specific topic per university, I suspect, means that people tend not to post information they have - I think we're more likely to respond to something rather than start a new topic.

4) Without any kind of comprehensive listing, we're probably less likely to be found by anyone looking for information on any specific university - even though we may have people here who've been there, but just not posted about it.

What I'm thinking of doing is . . .

Creating a single topic for each university in China that accepts foreign students. This would then become THE thread for that university, and any question or discussion goes there.

The first post of those topics would consist of some very basic info - the university's names, website info, maybe some blurb on the city / province, and any defining features if there are any. Perhaps contact details for foreign student applications, but given that this should a) be on the website and B) that emails, which is what people actually want, are so unreliable and changeable, I'm not sure. Anyone who can't find them can ask for help, after all.

Existing topics then get moved in under that heading, if there are any.

More popular universities may need special attention - an applications topic, a current students topic, , degree vs non-degree courses. Can't see this being the case for more than a handful of universities though.

One issue would be how to handle 'comparison' topics - ie 'Help me choose between Nanjing University and Nanjing Normal University.' I guess we'd just have to keep an eye on them to try and ensure that any information posted is also reflected in the two individual topics.

On principle I'd like to do the same for private schools, but the Chinese government doesn't provide easily spreadsheetable lists of those yet, and it's obviously a much tougher sector to keep up with.

Any thoughts?

[muyongshi]

I'd be willing to do a little write up of the main university here in MY. It'd be nice to have it more centralized however I wonder how much of an issue we would run into about people actually writing stuff- kind of like the wiki that we had for cities.

[imron]

Why not have it as a separate subforum like cities? That way the sticky could contain information pertaining to the uni at hand and then people could start up random threads within the sub-forum about anything related to the uni without clogging up the main thread. Some subforums are likely to be underused, but the same could be said about the cities.

[roddy]

I have no doubt that, eg, the Guangxi Technological College of Machinery and Electricity isn't going to attract much discussion - indeed after a quick look at their website I'm not even sure they really take foreign students. But unused entries can simply sink down to the bottom of the forums, that's not a problem.

Edit@imron - I don't think those random questions would be clogging up anything - they'll be the information people are actually looking for.

I'm a bit undecided at the moment as to whether this should be a forum of it's own - 'Directory of and Discussion on Chinese Universities' kind of thing, or if the threads should be divided out among the city sub-forums.

[imron]

I think a sub-forum of its own would be better simply because people will want to compare universities and it's not not always immediately obvious which city sub-forum to look in to find different universities.

[gato]

I think a sub-forum of its own would be better simply because people will want to compare universities and it's not not always immediately obvious which city sub-forum to look in to find different universities.

Right. There are currently "Studying Outside of China" and "Teaching English in China" subforums, but no "Studying in China" subforum.

[yueni]

I think a sub-forum of its own would be better simply because people will want to compare universities and it's not not always immediately obvious which city sub-forum to look in to find different universities.

I would also like to agree with this. People have also posted asking about universities from two different parts of China, so I think a Study/University type subforum would be better. I would be more than happy to post a BLCU blurb/informative post, if this does come to fruition. I'm finding people asking the same questions over and over, and I end up either regurgitating past answers or referring them back to page ## on post abc for my answers.

[self-taught-mba]

I think it might resullt in people having to scroll through 20+ pages of outdated posts if it is a single thread. just my 2 cents. The current system seems ok imho. Just search. Quick inquiries go away quickly, while ongoing topics like BLCU housing seem stable anyway.

I understand that some are more likely to respond rather than start a thread, but the new threads DO go on the frontpage and seem to get answers straight away. That would seem encouraging to me if I were a newbie.

[blink]

If you do rearrange things I'd also suggest dividing the 'meetup/who's going this year' type threads from the questions about applications, housing, etc. Consolidated, a single thread on each university could get really long as everyone posts to say hi at the start of the year/term which would make it a lot harder to find the practical information needed to get there, get housed, register, and start classes...

[XiaoBin]

Agree, I feel that some threads are snowballing. It's hard to find information. Result is that questions are asked over and over again because ppl don't want to browse the 12 pages the thread is made of.

Roddy's idea sounds good. But we need a moderator to re-organize the thread and keep adding relevant information to the first post. I'm willing to write what I know about BLCU, but could use help on the 1yr program. Only know the short term.

Also willing to help any ppl going to BLCU this fall, I'll be there wednesday. So if anyone has big problems I'll be there.

Let me know if you guys need my help with that.

[self-taught-mba]

XB has a point. So it seems like it is either:

1) don't know how to find the thread

2) don't know how to find the info in the thread

[roddy]

Yeah, a Studying in China forum does make sense.

With comparison posts where people are effectively asking 'should I go to A or B' - I'm dubious about the value of those. I can see how they might seem useful to the poster, but the simple fact is that outside of a small subset of universities the chances of finding anyone who's been to both and done similar courses is tiny. They'd be better off figuring out what they want to base the decision on, then asking specific questions in the two relevant university discussions. "Should I go to Xi'an Jiaotong or Nanjing Normal?" - well frankly, who on earth knows? Read about both cities and universities, ask any specific questions, and choose.

As for the risk of 20 pages of outdated posts, and topics getting really long - I only see that as a risk for the very popular universities, and as I say I think that having seperate topics will deal with that nicely - eg:

BLCU Classes / Teachers discussion

BLCU Accommodation

BLCU 2010/2011 Meet and Greet

BLCU whatever - these can be spun off as necessary.

But we need a moderator to re-organize the thread and keep adding relevant information to the first post.

Volunteering? No need to be a moderator, write up an informative post, post it as a new topic, and edit the first post as necessary.

For random provincial universities the chances are all of those topics can be lumped together. If things get messy we can spin new ones off.

Those of you saying you could do write-ups on whatever you know - don't wait

[XiaoBin]

I'll try to do the BLCU one, but need help on the 1yr program

[Lu]

They'd be better off figuring out what they want to base the decision on, then asking specific questions in the two relevant university discussions. "Should I go to Xi'an Jiaotong or Nanjing Normal?" - well frankly, who on earth knows? Read about both cities and universities, ask any specific questions, and choose.

You are right, of course, but given how many people come here with such questions, I think there needs to be a place for them. These are often people who are genuinely interested in studying and in China, have researched a bit and narrowed down their plans, and now come here for some last advice. A policy of telling them they're asking the wrong question would, in my opinion, be a bit rude, and not a good idea.

Perhaps a 'which university should I go to?' subforum?

[XiaoBin]

Is there still use for me to write the BLCU "manual"? Haven't get any offers helping me on the 1yr program. Also it seems that the uni discussions died these days. I think they will start up again when it will get close to march.

[Elkedf]

I think it is a good idea to start this thread. I work in a Chinese university in the International Office, so I can contribute a lot of general information about studying in China... and promote the university I work for...

[roddy]

'Where / How to study' topics run in cycles - building up before and over the summer, then when people start arriving they collapse into a few 'where / how can I buy / find . . . ' questions. Some people will stick around as regulars, some will pop in if and when they need some help, etc. .

I just can't do it right now. Anything you write up will still be useful.

The above changes, and others mentioned elsewhere, are still on the agenda - I just haven't had time to get round to actually doing anything lately,