Swansea University signs up to project to tackle binge drinking

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Swansea University has signed up to a radical new project designed to tackle the culture of binge drinking at universities across England and Wales.

Swansea University is among seven universities involved in the NUS Alcohol Impact project launched by the government and National Union of Students today (Wednesday 28 May 2014).

The universities have signed up to a 12 month pilot scheme to encourage responsible drinking among students.

Swansea, Royal Holloway, Loughborough, Nottingham, Manchester Met, Liverpool John Moores, and Brighton universities are hoping to gain accreditation under the NUS Alcohol Impact scheme for their work in promoting responsible alcohol policy and practice. They will aim to reduce alcohol-fuelled crime and disorder and prevent health harms.

Accreditation will be awarded to universities which meet a set of criteria committing them to actions such as preventing alcohol-related initiation ceremonies, tackling student participation in pub crawls and monitoring anti-social behaviour.

Responsible drinking communications campaigns, formal training for university staff on alcohol harms and developing social alternatives to licensed premises are also among the criteria which the universities will work towards.

Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker said:

“Binge drinking at universities is nothing new, but that doesn’t mean it is a good idea.

“Some students find themselves encouraged to participate in alcohol fuelled activities which can damage health and in some cases spill over into disorder and anti-social behaviour.

“The NUS Alcohol Impact project, backed by the Home Office, will help participating universities to encourage responsible drinking leading to safer and more productive places to study and live.

“Accreditation should become a badge of honour for universities, and another factor which helps promote their world class teaching and research to prospective domestic and international students.”

NUS Vice-President (Welfare) Colum McGuire said:

“I am really pleased to work with the Home Office to launch this project on alcohol harm. It is such an important issue in terms of both welfare and community relations.

“We hope that the work of the project will allow us to create a social norm of responsible consumption by students at the pilot institutions, changing attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol, leading to safer and more productive places to study and live.

“The project is an extremely positive one that has the welfare of students at its core, with a range of benefits from reducing crime and disorder, to improving student health and academic outcomes, and enhancing partnerships within local communities.

“We will also aim to encourage responsible retailing and the provision of a broader range of activities as well as effective support services on campus, and by doing so make universities more welcoming for those who do not drink.”

A Swansea University spokesperson said:

“The wellbeing of our student population is very important to us and we work closely with our students’ union to encourage our students to act responsibly.

“As a Healthy University, Swansea and its students’ union have already signed up to the Welsh Government Alcohol in HE Toolkit and have adopted a joint policy approach to alcohol and drugs so we are pleased to help pioneer this scheme.”

  • The Home Office has committed more than £90,000 for year one of the pilot, and will consider funding for year two in due course. By year three the scheme is expected to be entirely self-funding.

  • An interim evaluation report will be published in January 2015, and a final report in Spring 2015.  

  • A statistical bulletin published by the Office for National Statistics in December 2013 shows that young people (those aged 16-24) were more likely to have drunk very heavily (more than 12 units for men and 9 units for women) at least once during the week (27%), with similar proportions for men (26%) and women (28%). Only 3% of those aged 65 and over were very heavy drinkers. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_338863.pdf <http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_338863.pdf

  • Alcohol related crime and disorder costs an estimated £11 billion per year in England and Wales, and the government wants to support local communities in reducing the scenes of drunkenness and violence that blight communities, particularly at night.

This is a Home Office press release issued by their press office in conjunction with the National Union of Students.