Tag:amenity=university
 amenity = university
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| Description |
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An educational institution designed for instruction, examination, or both, of students in many branches of advanced learning. 
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| Group: Education features |
| Used on these elements |
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| Useful combination |
| Wikidata |
| Q3918 |
Status: approved
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| Tools for this tag |
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- For OSM activities by the scientific community, see Research.
Contents
How to map
Universities typically occupy a large area, so it is recommended to create an 
around the entire campus with the amenity=university tag, plus a name=* tag at least. For a more complex multi-site facility then ideally it will be mapped using a multipolygon. There should not be a node and area for the same university.
Buildings can be tagged with building=university and optionally also building:levels=* or height=* for tall buildings. Buildings serving multiple distinct functions can be described using multiple 'building' tags which share nodes on the boundary between functions. Each part of the building can then have its own name. Building entrances can be identified using an entrance=* which ideally links to the transport network with highway=footway, highway=steps or a similar tag.
It is also useful to tag amenity=parking gardens, bars, restaurants, shops, and much more besides.
Individual elements of the university should not be tagged with amenity=university but can be mapped with operator=* and the name of the university, for example operator=University College London. Land and building owned by the university but not used for university purposes (ie not used for teaching, research, administration or accommodation - although note the below on accommodation) should not be included in this boundary. Where a university owns land and building for investment or future use these should be tagged appropriately with operator=blar university.
When the university accommodates students on a separate site to the site where teaching and research takes place, then the tagging landuse=residential + residential=university can be used (also use operator=*). Where it is not easily discernible that residential land belongs to the university (no signs, barriers or other distinct features), consider avoiding mapping the area as a university. The building itself can be included in the university relation, and the operator tag used.
Faculties and departments
 | This paragraph should later be moved to dedicated faculty and department definitions and linked from here |
Current usage on taginfo indicates that users start mapping faculties with the key faculty=* and departments with the key department=*. As these are likely formalized values the suggestion is to use English words, replace spaces with underscores, don't capitalize and don't concatenate refs in the faculty tag (e.g. don't tag "09 Chemistry" but use "chemistry" and put "09" in the ref).
Number of uses in OSM
| faculty=* | department=* |
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Similar tag and proposals
- amenity=college - For college grounds.
- amenity=school - Schools use a similar tagging system.
- Proposed features/University Campus (tertiary education) - original proposal for this tag
- amenity=hospital - Hospitals can be large institutions comprising many buildings. We should follow a similar approach when mapping them
- building=university - separate buildings
- residential=university - residential area
Photos and examples
