Key:university
 university
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| Description |
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Type of organisational unit within a university, such as a faculty, institute, or department. 
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| Group: top-level |
| Used on these elements |
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| Useful combination |
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| See also |
| Status: in use |
| Tools for this tag |
university=* classifies an organisational unit of a university. It may be used as the main feature tag when mapping the unit itself, or together with office=university when a concrete office represents that unit. Common structural values include university=faculty, university=institute, and university=department.
Values should indicate a feature type rather than the name of the parent university. Use the standard operator=* when the university operates the mapped feature.
How to map
Map the organisational unit where it has a verifiable physical presence:
- If it has a publicly identifiable main office, secretariat, or similar contact point, place a node at that office or map the office area.
- If the unit occupies a clearly defined area, the area may be mapped instead. Do not apply the organisational tags to an entire shared building merely because the unit has rooms there.
- If there is no identifiable location, do not place a node at an arbitrary point solely to represent an abstract organisation.
Current usage includes both university=institute and university=department. The institute value is more common and is often used for units presented as institutes, while the department value is used for departments and comparable divisions. This remains a rough scheme: university terminology and structures vary, and data consumers are unlikely to infer a detailed organisational hierarchy from these values alone.
Values
| Tag | Meaning | Useful additional tags |
|---|---|---|
university=faculty
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A faculty, school, Fachbereich, or comparable high-level academic division of a university. | faculty=*, name=*, ref=*, operator=*
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university=institute
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An academic or research institute that is an organisational part of a university. An independent research institution may be better described with amenity=research_institute.
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faculty=*, subject=*, name=*, operator=*
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university=department
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An academic department, commonly within a faculty, school, or institute. | faculty=*, department=*, name=*, operator=*
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The supplementary keys faculty=*, institute=* and department=* can be used for affiliation and academic scope. Standardised values generally use lower-case English words with underscores. A suitable shared classification is often used where one exists; otherwise semicolons may separate distinct values. The displayed or commonly used name belongs in name=*, while ref=* or a suitable namespaced reference key can hold identifiers.
Specific subjects of study can also be tagged with subject=* and subject:wikidata=*, in analogy to existing practice with tagging subjects of museums.
University offices
office=university describes a concrete office providing university services or serving a faculty, institute, or department. It may be combined with university=* when one feature represents both the organisational unit and its actual office.
Other university features
The key has also historically been used for facilities and services. More specific feature tags are now available and may be preferable for new mapping:
| Values found in use | Preferred tagging |
|---|---|
lecture_hall, seminar_room, computer_lab, laboratory, workshop, art_room
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Use Simple Indoor Tagging with indoor=room and an appropriate room=* value, for example room=lecture_hall.
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office, administration, secretary
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Use office=university for a concrete university office.
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library
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Use amenity=library.
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dormitory, residential
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Use building=dormitory for a building, or landuse=residential with residential=university for a housing area.
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student_association, student_union
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Use association=student; add office=association when mapping its office.
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campus
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Follow the guidance for amenity=university, education=university, landuse=education, and campus=*. Do not use university=campus as a substitute for the main university or campus tags.
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yes or the name of a university
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These do not identify the type of university subdivision. Use an appropriate structural value and record the university in operator=* where applicable.
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Do not add amenity=university or education=university to each faculty, department, institute, or university building just to make the feature appear on the map; those tags are usually understood to refer to the university or an independently mapped university site as a whole.
Examples
Faculty represented by its office
university=faculty office=university faculty=science name=Faculty of Science ref=01 operator=Example University level=1
Department represented by its office
university=department office=university faculty=science department=chemistry name=Department of Chemistry operator=Example University level=2
Software support
Support for university=* by renderers, geocoders, editors, and other data consumers is limited. Add established main feature tags such as office=university where they accurately describe the same feature, but do not add unrelated tags only to obtain rendering.
See also
amenity=university– a university or university siteeducation=university– a university in the general education tagging schemelanduse=education– an educational campus or other land predominantly used for educationbuilding=university– a university buildingoffice=university– a university officefaculty=*– academic field or faculty classificationdepartment=*– academic department classification, also used in other contextscampus=*– campus-related tagging currently in use- Simple Indoor Tagging – mapping lecture halls, office rooms, and other indoor features