The average Cambridge student consumes 28.4 alcohol units a week, a CUSU/Varsity survey revealed last week. This equates to nine units a night, far exceeding the recommended daily allowance of two units a day for women and four for men. The survey also revealed that over half of Cambridge students have had to miss academic commitments as a consequence of excessive drinking. In response to these survey results, and last week’s CUSU Drinking Awareness Campaign, Varsity launched an investigation to ascertain whether or not a culture of binge drinking is endemic in Cambridge.

Several students admitted to drinking 50-60 units a week. One rugby player even claimed that in an average Cambridge week he consumed 120 units. One member of a prominent college drinking society calculated that he would get through twelve to fifteen pints on his society’s two weekly outings, in addition to going to the bar for a “relaxing pint” on three or four other occasions each week. A former Blues sportsman admitted that “on a rugby initiation we had 360 pints for 30 people and it wasn’t enough”.

Former Blue: on a rugby initiation we had 360 pints for 30 people and it wasn't enough

Addenbrooke’s Consultant Emergency Physician Dr Boyle expressed serious concern when shown the results, explaining that admittances from alcohol-related incidents increase “significantly” during university term-time. “The main problem with binge drinking is the increased risk of injuries” he said, before adding that hazards for drunken students included “falling off bikes, falling into the Cam and having unprotected sex”. The Varsity survey found that in this year alone a third of students had injured themselves while drinking.
The British Medical Association underlined the potential long-term impact of such excessive drinking. A spokesperson said, “The over-consumption of alcohol causes serious health problems and is responsible for numerous health care costs including the treatment of alcohol dependence.” Boyle suggested that student binge drinking “sets the ground for alcoholism in the future”.

The survey results confirmed suspicions of a serious and widespread binge drinking culture within the University. Varsity research uncovered a number of different explanations for such patterns of alcohol consumption. The “need to escape the enormous academic pressure put on all students” and “a desire to keep up with older peers” were frequent answers. One classicist commented, “when you’re particularly stressed out, that’s when you find yourself drinking more”. An English student admitted to Varsity that “there are times when I’ve felt like drinking until unconscious to escape university pressures”. Downing College Senior Tutor Graham Virgo identified the tradition of drinking societies as a major cause of the binge drinking culture, explaining that “there are undoubtedly a number of reasons for excessive drinking, but it is certainly exacerbated by a drinking culture focused on drinking societies”.

Former Wyvern: people have fractured their necks and been impaled

Rosie May, President of the Magdalene Belladonnas, told Varsity that “we normally go on two swaps a week”. Another drinking society member explained that “most members take one, or even two, bottles of wine with them on a swap” and that “the first bottle is often gone before the starter has even arrived”. A member of the Marguerites, the Christ’s College male sporting society, complained that “we would have more [outings], but massively debilitating hangovers prevent it”.

The efforts made to keep up with the “elite” drinking societies by naïve freshers have been seen by some as one of the most dangerous parts of the Cambridge binge drinking culture. Almost half of all students surveyed claimed to have been a member of a drinking society at some point during their time at Cambridge, highlighting the prevalence of this tradition at the University.

During the course of the investigation Varsity was made aware of a number of incidents where copy-cat “freshers’ drinking societies” had made potentially fatal errors in their efforts to mimic their older peers. An incident at Peterhouse in October allegedly saw a fresher placed in hospital with suspected brain damage during a bungled initiation. At a leading sporting college, members of such a copy-cat society were called before the Senior Tutor in a bid to “head off a repeat” of a previously undisclosed “disaster in 1992”.

But the copy-cat societies are not the only culprits, with some of the more established “elite” societies proudly parading the results of their binge drinking excesses. A former president of University-wide drinking society The Ferrets told Varsity that during initiations “people have fractured their necks and been impaled”. A former Wyvern boasted to Vice magazine in October that “some potential members have been hospitalised” during initiation procedures.

Despite this, the majority of drinking society presidents told Varsity that their priority was to ensure the wellbeing of members during initiations or when on nights out. Stephen Montgomery, President of the Marguerites, told Varsity that “the welfare of members is always of the utmost importance at all club events. There is a high level of trust amongst the members and any member who has drunk too much is always looked after by more senior or sober members. If one gets too inebriated, another will take him home, if one is being naughty, another will tell them he is a bad man.”

Although it is clear that the Cambridge drinking culture is in some respects unique, the pattern of extreme binge drinking is “ingrained amongst the wider student body”. Jamie Frew, Welfare Officer of the Oxford University Student Union, said that binge drinking was also a problem in Oxford, attributing it to the “extreme pressure” of the Oxbridge academic environment. He commented, “Oxford and Cambridge work you harder, so you have to play harder”.

Veronica King, Vice President for Welfare at the National Union of Students, acknowledged an escalation of binge drinking at many other universities, saying that “Alcohol is embedded into the student culture”. King expanded on this by saying that the tendency to drink excessively is a “British cultural issue”. She said, “I do not think it’s necessarily just students that binge drink. On a Saturday night out you cannot tell the difference between students and other young people. In addition to this, international students are often shocked and appalled by the amount and way in which British people as a whole drink.”

Despite the apparent ease of identifying the binge drinking problem, finding a solution was acknowledged by all sources to be far more problematic. King highlighted the difficulty of dealing with the issue, saying that “of all the student campaigns I work on, getting the message of responsible drinking across is the hardest”. Frew stated that simply putting together campaigns and raising awareness of the risks of excessive drinking can never be enough. “Students do not realise that there are often potentially disastrous consequences to what they see as an innocent past time. Very rarely do people stop and listen, it often takes something shocking for them to realise that this behaviour is dangerous.”

The survey results revealed that 39 per cent of students had “done something that they later regretted whilst drunk”. But all the available medical evidence would in fact indicate that even more than the odd embarrassing escapade, the very process of getting drunk, be it to seek escape, to compete or simply to keep up, may in itself become the single greatest regret of many future MA Cantabs.

Rebecca Lester

Sam Rose, CUSU Welfare Officer on drinking responsibly

“Responsible drinking? Oh Sam, stop it.” Perhaps my favourite of the responses I got last week while on our tour of college bars, surveying students and handing out information on responsible drinking. After talking to people a little, the range of reactions was itself fascinating; some looked terrified on realising how much they really drank, while others just laughed and threw the leaflets away, occasionally swearing at me a bit for good measure. Particularly fun were the drinking society and rugby team responses, two groups that at once were most willing to take part, and quickest to turn my leaflets into a drinking game.

The drinking culture in Cambridge has always fascinated me. My counterpart in Oxford talks of a “work hard play hard” culture in the two universities, and this seems to manifest itself in drinking centred around the extra-curricular activities students do. Just this week “Editorial drinks” were held for this newspaper, while late nights at the ADC bar are a regular for thesps, and who could fail to notice miscellaneous sports “socials” that go on. Then there are the drinking societies, purveyors of “organised banter” as my friend sourly called them until joining one last year.

The point is the visibility of these things, and how easy it is to single out their organised nights as worrying. It is rather too easy to point the finger at drinking societies or a “Cambridge culture”. Anyone who thinks Cambridge students have an unusually big problem should witness the carnage of a Saturday night Cindies, or perhaps just sit down for a few episodes of Booze Britain.

This is not to deny that students should be aware of what they are doing to themselves, but drinking education in England is not poor, and Cambridge students are certainly not stupid; people know that alcohol causes liver damage, reduces sexual performance, contains huge numbers of calories and limits academic achievement. It is a simple fact that telling students to stop drinking just doesn't work, and that is why CUSU tries to emphasise the importance of responsible drinking.

Some received our survey with jokes, but I like to think a few friends looked after each other at the end of those nights, making sure they went home together, or looking after someone being sick. Even if few students put down their glasses, its important that people are talking about these issues.