The curriculum

Some interviewees spoke of elements in the current course curricula where students already encountered alcohol related issues. Whilst one might have expected this to occur in professional courses, such as health, social work and education, it was not confined to such courses. For example, one set of students taking media studies had projects in which they engaged with issues related to alcohol use. Thus at one level, some students were already aware of problematic effects of alcohol use. However, staff drew the distinction between learning within the course and applying such learning to their own circumstances. Students appeared aware of the issues within the course context but it was questionable whether this understanding transferred to drinking in the evening or weekends when they were in more social situations. Whilst acknowledging that some students seemed to be influenced by what they had learnt, some interviewees were doubtful that increased knowledge on its own would

lead to behavioural change in all students. However, they concluded that increasing the visibility of alcohol related issues within their academic courses might have some impact.

4.3 Summary

The aim of this element of the research was to determine the views of those within the university and the partner colleges and those in external organisations who we considered would be knowledgeable about students’ use of alcohol. It is possible that the way in which we selected our informants might not have enabled us to include all those with something to contribute to the discussion. For example, we are aware that we were unable to access the GPs involved with student health and therefore may have missed a crucial perspective. Similarly we did not have full access to a representative from the off-licenses - independent or in supermarkets - although we had a contribution from the campus shop. However, the nature of such qualitative work is to draw together a range of views, and the data generated by the existing interviewees was considerable. In this chapter, we chose to focus and report upon the broader dimensions of the data rather than the specifics although the more specific information provided by interviewees will provide a valuable resource for subsequent developments within the university.

In this summary we focus on a number of key issues that arose out of the interviews and subsequent analysis. We noted that many interviewees thought primarily in terms of younger students living on campus when considering student alcohol related issues. The references to other more mature students, international students or those from ethnic minorities tended to arise in relation to exceptions to the prevailing perception that students were young, in full- time education and living away from home independently for the first time. How much this is a reaction to the cultural stereotype of a student and how much of it results from alcohol related contact with this group is uncertain. Those in higher education were more aware of the diversity of the student body; those in the agencies and external organisations tended to be far less aware of the different groups. Again, it is difficult to determine how much the externals’ perception is founded upon a cultural concept of university students and how much of it relates to their knowledge of, and experience in dealing with, alcohol related issues, where much of the emphasis and often activity, such as in the town centre on club nights, has largely related to young people. For the majority of our interviewees then, student drinking relates to the visible world of young people drinking excessively, both off campus in licensed venues and on campus in the student union and residential accommodation, normally at night. We noted a considerable degree of congruence between the views of those within the university and its partner colleges and those in the external organisations. The majority spoke sympathetically of a culture predicated upon alcohol based socialisation, with students taking advantage of a time without responsibilities, other than their academic studies, when they could fully participate in leisure activities. They identified that many of the students had recently left school and were living away from home and their parents for the first time. Their concern was not to stop them drinking alcohol or adversely impact on their ability to enjoy themselves, but to reduce excessive alcohol consumption and the problems, both for themselves and others, associated with it. The view expressed by the majority was that the students are still learning how to be an adult, that they are likely to make mistakes and that the role of staff and others in the community was to be supportive, providing that the student stayed within acceptable boundaries and did not cause harm to others.

All recognised the potential harms to students of excessive consumption and referred variously to a range of problems, including poor academic performance, health issues, finance, relationships, crime and violence and aggression associated with it. Staff from the university and those in alcohol-focussed services drew attention to the level of individual harm experienced by those who drank alcohol excessively and from incidents arising from others’ drinking. In relation to broader issues such as abusive, aggressive and disruptive behaviour arising from alcohol consumption and affecting the university and its locality more generally, both internals and externals reported that problems were not usually serious, would seem to have reduced on campus in recent years, and compared favourably to the scale of disorder and injury seen in the town centre when the general populace went out drinking at the weekend. The exception seemed to be when events or night-clubs involved both locals and students. How far this is because the personnel involved take a more supportive approach to students who are drunk, and how much of it is due to the more limited numbers in the town centre venues on student nights or that students themselves see the environment as less threatening when there are only other students there and thus respond accordingly, is not clear.

Some interviewees drew attention to the harm that the drinking culture had for those who did not consume alcohol, raising issues of equality and diversity for the university, its partner colleges and the student union. Thus they highlighted that alcohol related problems are not restricted to alcohol abuse that can be addressed on an individual basis, but encompass alcohol-related issues that involve a much broader base and have implications for strategic, procedural and operational issues within the HE community. In addition, many of the matters they raise in conjunction with student alcohol use confirm the need to focus on environmental and structural factors within the local community and society at large. Issues of alcohol use within the university cannot be separated from the issues that affect alcohol use within society more broadly. The university is embedded within the community, not separate from it, and thus attempts to deal with the adverse aspects of student alcohol use require a more integrated approach.