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

Funny you should say this but when I was getting towards the end of my masters I was considering going to Oxford for my PhD and was actually put off this by my supervisor who said that the emphasis there was much more on the undergraduate than the postgrad (he tought there before he tought at my old uni).

I honestly don't believe that at graduate level that there is a university wide difference between Oxbridge and everywhere else because it is much more down to the resources and research strenghts of each department. As far as undergrad I suppose that is more debatable, although not having got an oxbridge degree I wouldn't know if it were harder or not.

i think it all goes down to the kind of supervisor you have cause at the end of the day you are free (via Sconul) to access all the library resources you may need at any other university. i think its all about the same to be honest. if you have some dead end supervisor at oxford you are better off elsewhere with a good one!