Well, I'd be surprised if royal holloway and bedford new college
managed to be terribly different from Imperial or UCL or QMC or Kings
and n all those, you need to pass exams each year, just like Cambridge or
many other UK unviersities- there's no points system nor was there any between
1981 and 2001 when i was teaching at UCL (and examining occasionally at
Imperial).

Points systems typically are part of modular degrees which are typically
part of New Universities (e.g. London Metropolitan - was North london Poly
where I worked 79-80, or oxford brookes, where i was examiner in math/cs for 4
years in the 1990s...) - taking "time off for long weekends" was something
I recall a LOT of students doing in Cambridge in the 1970s, but not in NatSci:-)

The A level grades for Imperial and UCL are almost indistinguishable from those
for Cambridge university for many science subjects btw (CS&Physics for example

I didnt realize Imperial didnt have a reading week. They do have _less_
lectures than UCL (although they have more lab sessions for sciences). Most the
time taken across many universities is similar simply because there's a system
of external examiners who check the syllabi and the exams to make sure
degrees are worth the same - this is why, when you look at number of
1sts/2nds/3rds etc, awarded, they vary, fairly much in line with the entrance
grade requiements across many UK universities that still use a class of degree
system.

Of course as a cyclist, your mileage may vary across these educational
establishments in terms of safe routes, secure places to park your bike etc,
sympathy from the police, council, etc when you have an accident

Jon Crowcroft
(Now with leg in a cast instead of with metal frame, after only
4 months - oh, they still havnt done anything about the lamppost or
crack in the tarmac...which I would say, if there was another accident there,
could constitute something quite potentially legally expensive for them).


In article ,
Meldrew of Meldreth writes:
In article .com,
writes
Which of the universities in London were your friends at?

Bedford College is one I remember - that's part of the traditional
"London" University. Appears to have merged with Royal Holloway in the
mean time, and relocated out into the sticks.

So in short... I take offence to you suggesting that students "at
London" skip lectures and don't work hard

No need to take offence. My impression was that courses were completed
on a "points" basis. From what I recall it was common to almost get
enough points for a degree after two years, so the third year was plain
sailing and no need to go to every single lecture.
--
"now, the thing you type on and the window you stare out of are the same thing"

--
Jon Crowcroft