i go to one of the oxbridge universities in the uk. from talking to students at this university, they genuinely belive that undegraduate courses at this univeristy are an order of magnitude harder than any other "normal university". i dont agree with this point and i think the same is thought about graduate study at this univeristy. recently i found a web page on the graduate union website, which claims that as a research student you are expected to work so much more independantly than at other universities, having said that, ive seen a big contrast in the level of support that students are given by supervisors in my own department. im very interested to hear from students are oxbridge and other universities on this point