The lecturers at Birmingham seemed to have favourite students from very early on, who would particularly be encouraged in performance and composition- it somehow just 'happened' to have been decided by them who would lead sections in the orchestras, get solo concert opportunities or have their compositions specially performed by university ensembles. There didn't seem to have been auditions for these kinds of privileges, which meant that everyone didn't get an equal chance of being considered. Sometimes it seemed to have even been decided from before students started the course which students would be promoted- for example, if someone had been to music school (such as Chetham's or the Purcell), that person would 'coincidentally' be getting performance opportunities which other students did not. Of course, if someone had been to music school, then it was great for that person to be getting such opportunities, but I think that not giving everyone equal consideration can lead to resentment and may have been part of the reason why students in the department weren't particularly friendly. Also, if students were unhappy about something to do with the course, quite often they seemed to find themselves being given lower marks.