Abstract
Alcohol education and awareness aims to teach individuals the risks of excess consumption. It is common in UK universities, despite limited evidence of success with student cohorts. This research explored the development and delivery of such alcohol activities at one UK university. In-depth, one-to-one interviews were carried out with non-academic staff and with first-year students. These aimed to understand the development of alcohol awareness messages and staff involvement in delivery, as well as exploring student responses to key alcohol educational activities. Results indicate that alcohol is a normalized aspect of UK student identity and is accepted as such by students and staff. Despite this, there is a widely held view that the university has a responsibility to provide alcohol education and awareness, which forms the basis of current practice on campus. This reflects perception of education interventions as non-coercive and acceptable within the staff–student relationship, with limited support for more interventionist approaches with a group engaging in a legal behavior with strong cultural associations. However, staff approval of education as appropriate for this audience is contradicted by students, who reject these same approaches as reminiscent of school, instead favoring self-directed learning or peer-led programs.
Highlights
UK university settings are perceived by students as permissive of heavy alcohol use (Morton & Tighe, 2011), and high-risk drinking has been evident in UK student populations for many years (Gill, 2002)
This paper presents an in-depth exploration of alcohol practices in one UK university
Consideration should be given to more realistic policy and intervention focus for UK universities, aimed at reduction of alcohol-related harms, through targeted interventions reflecting the range of practices, locations and populations observed in student consumption
Summary
UK university settings are perceived by students as permissive of heavy alcohol use (Morton & Tighe, 2011), and high-risk drinking has been evident in UK student populations for many years (Gill, 2002). This is frequently characterised by heavy, single occasion – or binge – drinking (Craigs, Bewick, Gill, O’May, & Radley, 2011; Morton & Tighe, 2011), and has been linked to multiple adverse health and behavioral outcomes, including accidents (Clapp, Shillington, & Segars, 2000), being a victim of crime (Newbury-Birch et al, 2009), and increased risk of unprotected sex (White & Hingson, 2013). Despite little evidence of a knowledge deficit in young drinkers in relation to alcohol harms (IAS, 2013), typical activities include display of safe drinking messages warning of potential consequences of drinking to excess (Orme & Coghill, 2014)
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