Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Oxford Royale Academy

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Stifle (talk) 09:51, 18 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Oxford Royale Academy

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This does not appear to meet WP:NORG and the username of the creator suggests that this was written by someone representing the subject. The only thing that might be notable is its claim to have won a Queen's Award for Enterprise. But it's not actually listed among the winners. I can't find third-party verification for the claim. Even if that is true, it's not clear to me that it would automatically confer notability. Tchaliburton (talk) 18:16, 30 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Schools-related deletion discussions. NorthAmerica¹⁰⁰⁰ 02:57, 2 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Education-related deletion discussions. NorthAmerica¹⁰⁰⁰ 02:57, 2 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of England-related deletion discussions. NorthAmerica¹⁰⁰⁰ 02:57, 2 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Keep a COI is not sufficient reason for deletion. (Also the page was created 3 years ago and edited by many people since). The source backing the award in the article is behind a paywall, but its easy enough to verify: [1]. Secondary education institutes (which arguably is what this is) are almost always notable. A quick news search shows plenty of coverage for the institute to pass the GNG. --ThaddeusB (talk) 02:22, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

*Keep There are plenty of source, even small international one such as this. --I am One of Many (talk) 08:55, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, NorthAmerica¹⁰⁰⁰ 20:29, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Snow Keep. Per Thad's well-explained rationale. Epeefleche (talk) 07:14, 8 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Withdrawing !vote, per well-raised issues below. Epeefleche (talk) 07:28, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

*Keep Per ThaddeusB above, this institution passes notability. That the original author years ago may have had a WP:COI is irrelevant. The article is not spam.--Jersey92 (talk) 19:42, 9 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Keep per our generally accepted consensus that educational entities of confirmed existence at the secondary school level or higher are inherently notable. Carrite (talk) 14:37, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Comment. Looking into this after reneging on my close. The only coverage for this topic in LexisNexis are repackaged press releases about students chosen to attend, naming the program in passing mention. LexisNexis classifies the top hits as straight-up "press releases". I see very little about the actual program, I don't believe enough to constitute sigcov, even for ORG. One Daily Times piece was titled "Millennials win placements at top summer schools", so it could have the "top" going for it, but even still, where is the in-depth sigcov about the program if it's so great? Nothing in Google Books, not even for "oxford royale" or "oxford summer school". And looking at the Google News linked above, the only hits are press releases and the rest are mentions... I see no case of passing the general notability guideline or any benefit from redirecting this to the larger Oxford. Perhaps most importantly, this is not a degree-awarding secondary ed institution—it's a summer program. Am I missing something? czar ⨹ 16:30, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. All right, looks like this is happening. Courtesy pings: @ThaddeusB, I am One of Many, Epeefleche, and Carrite czar ⨹ 04:19, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Isn't is a program run at Oxford (even if this program does not grant degrees)? --Jersey92 (talk) 17:04, 11 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Comment This program is not affiliated with Oxford University. It's merely located in the city of Oxford. Tchaliburton (talk) 17:43, 11 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Comment

Oxford Royale Academy's legal status is that of a private limited company, number 6045196 in the UK. Amongst other educational activities, during summer it hires the facilities of Oxford University and contracts with many of their lecturers and world famous speakers. The organisation recently acquired a substantial 17th Century educational campus of 30 Acres a few miles outside Oxford, from where it will be running A-Level (full-time/year-round) educational (secondary level) from January 2015 (see website at www.oxford-royale.co.uk/international-study-centre). It first started teaching year-round [secondary] courses leading to an A-Level qualification on a small scale in October 2010. Approximately 10,000 international students have taken an Oxford Royale Academy residential course since it was first founded in 2004. 900+ schools around the world send students to attend Oxford Royale Academy summer programmes. 50+ classroom subjects are taught by over 100 faculty (Summer) 30+ interactive online courses, professionally recorded by eminent lecturers, have recently been made available to students preparing for undergraduate study [www.oraprep.com] The company was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2012, and the founders invited to attend The Queen's Award ceremony at Buckingham Palace, at which their contribution to UK export/international trade was acknowledged personally by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Edward and various other members of the royal family, as a part of the annual ceremony. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] In August 2012 the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, John Harwood, visited Oxford Royale to present the Queen's Award to meet the staff. [7] Students from over 90 nations around the world attend Oxford Royale Academy courses, making it one of the most culturally diverse summer programs in the world. The organisation is fully accredited by the British Council, and British Accreditation Council. The organisation is a member of English UK, Study UK, and the Council of British International Schools 47,000 people 'like' Oxford Royale Academy on Facebook. Scholarships are awarded to the brightest applicants from around the world.

Although perhaps not relevant, it may also be of interest that the educational articles posted on the Oxford Royale Academy website are cited numerous times on other wikipedia pages, for example: [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Delete Like Czar, my initial reaction was to close this as a Keep but then I took a closer look. The problem is the lack of independent sources as much of the material seems to be based on press releases or other promotional material. Even the meanest primary school in the UK has quite lengthy and detailed independent inspection reports by Ofsted. The equivalent for this place is the British Accreditation Council but they don't seem to have a report on this summer school (the reference in the article is a deadlink so I checked the BAC site afresh). There are lots of places like this in London, Oxford and Cambridge, trading on the reputation of the universities and using their facilities in the summer. See Oxford Summer Courses for another one which is also at AFD right now. When we're routinely shutting out well-documented primary schools from Wikipedia, we shouldn't be letting in more overtly commercial establishments just because they sound grand. As a compromise, one might include them in a list like list of summer schools of linguistics but such a list would be a directory if the entries didn't have their own pages. Andrew D. (talk) 23:27, 11 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Together you convinced me. The subject's name, location, etc. seem to have misled some of us. --Jersey92 (talk) 00:09, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Delete as promotional and non-notable. The presumption that secondary and higher educational organizations are notable applies to degree-granting institutions, not to providers of short summer courses. I don't see any indication that this is particularly notable among such organizations. The "awards" are trivial & amount to PR -- cf. the number of awards annually for the Queen's Awards for Enterprise-- that PR is supported by governments does not make the PR a high distinction. DGG ( talk ) 23:00, 14 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I’ve added some info about past guest speakers - seems like this company’s lecture series has attracted some attention from the skeptic community recently. Lots of blogs discussing Susan Blackmore’s speech and the subsequent walkout as well - does this count as “Factors that have attracted widespread attention”?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.126.205.109 (talk)
Delete I found a reliable source FAT CATS PROFIT FROM INTERVIEW TRAINING CAMP that pretty much establishes the Academy's non-notability. --I am One of Many (talk) 21:35, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
In another article, the same newspaper makes mention of the organisation here [22] in relation to a donation by Oxford Royale Academy allowing for the reconstruction of an observatory at St Catherine's College, Oxford. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.147.72.214 (talk) 23:04, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.