Although York has a brilliant reputation it fails miserably to deliver at almost every turn.

I am genuinely happy for other students who have better things to say for their experience but clearly not all departments are equal.

I study Social Work. The majority of teachers are academic titans, however they lack any recent experience or true practical application within the last decade. Resulting in dreary, basic, idealistic and lack luster lectures of dubious relevance in the face of current practice. Of course there are a few individual lecturers who are the exception but overall I can honestly say there is nothing they could teach you that couldn't pick up from any basic book. Obviously this makes assignments incredibly challenging - as ironically they expect fireworks!

In addition to this placements provided for this course are without doubt the worst in the country, so if nothing else you take from this please consider this impact this will have on your education / future employment prospects.

Aside from this matter - admin staff are lousy and Library fines are some of the highest in the country. Add to this a secluded country campas with exorbitant and scarce parking, you begin to get a flavour of the everyday frustrations facing a York University student.

If you are looking for a University which is going to keep up - then I'm sorry to say that you should forget York, for Social Work at least.