John,
I think the RDA instruction was probably worded that way to allow freedom to record whatever feels most useful and to take into account varying amounts of information available. In most cases it's enough to record the university name, but some libraries feel very particular about recording the name of the department or faculty for dissertations from their own university.
Yes, I can quite understand that, although I now think this mixes up two different things: The corporate body which grants the degree and the faculty or department where the thesis was prepared.
I don't think the University College London was meant to represent a faculty,
I suppose you're right. I just had the expectation that if there are two cases in an instruction, and four examples are given, then at least one of them would illustrate the second case - and the University College was the only one which stuck somewhat out.
Perhaps the examples group could look out for a suitable example here?
but the Fakultaet fuer Agrarwissenschaften would be an example of a faculty.
It's definitely a faculty, but does it fit the text of the instruction: "the granting institution or faculty"?
I had never thought about this before, but now that I do I think that it's always the university which grants the degree, and not the faculty. I just checked my own degree certificate and it says (I translate, as not everybody's command of German is as good as John's): "The Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, represented by the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty 1, ... , hereby grants the degree of Master of Arts ...". I also looked up some federal university laws, which gave me the same impression.
Heidrun -- --------------------- Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A. Stuttgart Media University Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi
