IT, London Kingston University

Kingston university is a large institution but that is no excuse for the lack of organisation and dedication to its cause. After signing up for a degree, along with many other students my own age, the university lost my application details. Once that was sorted out they confused my year 1 subject choices with another student and took a long time to correct their mistakes.Once I had my timetable I found that two locations for my lectures (which were always packed) were incorrect and as the terms continued the rooms used for seminars were changed at very short notice with little warning. (The room changes were posted on the relevant board on a sheet of paper which sometimes went missing.)Kingston has a fair few buildings and it amazes me that one department (in my case English Literature) could expect all of its students to make it from one building to the next (sometimes a good 10/15 minute fast walk away) between lectures and seminars. When a whole bunch of you arrive 15 minutes late, slightly out of breath and stressed, it's not the tutor that minds but the students. We missed out on a quarter of an hour of education and felt self-concious to boot.I also signed up for an additional foreign language course which I did in the first year. When I passed this module I sent in the cheque for my certificate which they never sent to me. They couldn't tell me if they had sent the certificate or not because they had no idea.When I had a major personal issue crop up in my second year I e-mailed my head of department for advice. I was told that it was best to 'pop in' for an informal chat. When I turned up I found myself at the back of a line extending out of his office, down the hall and ending up on the stairs, with some people waiting at the front of the queue for over an hour. I would have missed my lecture if I'd stayed and wouldn't be surprised if a few of the students there had forfeited a seminar or two just to sort out a problem which really should be more easily dealt with.

Grades rely at Kingston University on group assessment. So if you you work to an A grade and the other group members work is C grade you will end up with this overall grade unless you put all the work in yourself. This is because there are too many students of low work/grade capabilities, and the university looks good because it gets loads of students to pass under the few that actually put work in.

You can choose the modules that don't have group work, but this is limiting you to very few choices.