1/ students are not gonna spend 3000-4000 commuting, so
we're talking (well i was talking) about staff (teaching officers and related

2/ students do not have to live in hall, so they cannot be policed
in fact.

3/ staff and students have to "keep nights"
which actually is described
(in the statutes and ordinances and is on the web somewhere or other) as
no more than a number of nights sleeping away in a certain period where
"away" (or whatever it says) is
a certain distance (has varied over the years and for category of people.
(is now in miles, was at least for a while in hours walk/horseride

4/ this ALL contributes to the high cost of housing in and near cambridge
and probably doesnt particular reduce traffic (as the distance is still
driving for staff, and there are enough of them to constitute congestion
with families and they are badly enough paid that they wont all live near
enough to cycle unless they were practically born here and inherited a house
(or worked here for 10 years) (imho)

London University has 3 taught terms of 12 weeks with a reading week, and
5 day terms - Cambridge taught term is 8 weeks of 5.5 days max - in practice
UCL and Imperial students attend more lectures in sciences (at least where I
know) though whether this constites working "harder" I couldn't possibly
comment....well actually as an examiner at 10+ UK universities over the last 24
years I could - I'd say that the residence and working practices and
"boarding school" or otherwise of the UK universities is remarkably uniform
in the end, though.

Bigger Pictu
If I compare it to other European countries I am familiar with (e.g. UCD/TCD in
Ireland, Lulea and Stockholm, Paris XI, Nice, Pisa, Athens, etc etc), I'd say we
are more residential - if I compare it to US similar places, I'd say actually
less (at least e.g. Dartmouth, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, UPenn,
Michegan - note some of those are private, some state).

Of course, the trains in the rest of Europe are probably better
and we know the ones in the US are probably worse, (if thats possible)
so there's probably a Masters thesis in looking at the effects of
fast and reliable rail travel on the residential nature of faculty
and student body culture and locales in various countries of the developed
world. :-)

[can discuss Universities in Brasil and New Zealand too if you like:-]

p.s. If the current cruiser train time is 45 mins,
and we were discussing a possible time of 35 mins,
and the distance is 55 miles, I am not quite
sure where speeds of 125mph come up - 100mph
tilting trains would work on most the route
provided track and points are made up to a higher
quality surely? If you've ever been on a eurostar
coming into the chunnel from the continental side, when
it stops sometimes, it is on a mighty lean - looks like
even decent bogie design is sufficient given track
conditions (yes, I know TGV track is ruinously
pricy coz of fancy welds etc)...

--
Jon Crowcroft