Yea.. well do be honest, I have gone through a mix of feelings, during the first year I wasn't very content with the system, and it was largely different from what I had expected. Its university, as a student you are one in like 16,000 so you do not get much individual attention from lecturers - it is unlikely that they will know ur name or remember you after having asked them some questions. I came frmo a high school that was extremely small, everyone knew ur name etc. so this was very different for me - I almost felt alienated from the uni, or disassociated. The mentality is very much a do-it-yoirself mentality. The year is filled with 8 modules, each which is weighted by an exam 75% and a coursework 25% (this varies)... in essence you do not have to attend any classes and as long as u do well on those two, you can get a first. This for me was demotivating as it gave me less reason to attend classes and seminars, as the contribution to those didnt have a direct influence on my grade (obviously indirectly they do).. i especially lost motivation to attend classes which were slightly less-organised eg. those taught by phd students who are themsleves still learning. The system is fairly bureaucratic, the management department is disorganised and makes decisions that are poorly communicated to students. overall the communication within the department is poor and arbitrary - e.g. we have ot walk into the office to find out what our grades are - on a sheet on the wall (now imagine 150 students coming in at once to check exam grades). Whilst lecture notes are sometimes posted online, this is by no means consistent with all lecturers, and this onliune interface is hardly used for communication means...
Also last year they made several decisions without the students consent, which greatly affected us. firstly instead of doing 4 exams in in january (covering the pre-christmas modules) and 4 exams in may (covering the post-christmas modules), they moved all the exams to may, so now im faced with 8 exams in may. This was frustrating as they simply sent us an email saying that this was going to be the new system - we were not grandfatherted into teh old system, or asked for our opinion - its a deal with it situation. Also, one of the most look-forward to modules was droppped last minute due to a pregnancy leave, and this was poorly communicated and upset a lot of students.
It remains a good university though, and the courses are quite good. I have learnt a lot but i think the university can do a lot better, esecpially our dpartment. I do not know how our department compares to other departments or other unis, so its hard for me to give a weighted opinion. I expected slightly more from the course and university - i find they are very stubborn and traditional, which sometiems leads to some inefficiencies and moreover, upset students. at the moment I amhappy though and I am glad that i made teh decision to come here, say, over a country side uni - the london factor is definitely a big influence.
I hope this kind of gives an image, thats also ot too negative.. do ask more questions