Loughborough has joined Brighton, Liverpool John Moores, Manchester Met, Nottingham, Royal Holloway and Swansea, as one of the seven universities that have joined the new NUS alcohol impact project launched to encourage responsible drinking in universities across England and Wales.
In an aim to reduce alcohol-fuelled crime and disorder and prevent health harms, Loughborough University will be participating in a 12-month pilot project, launched by the Government and the NUS on May 27, that will promote a responsible alcohol policy and responsible drinking within the University, focusing on the prevention of alcohol-related initiation ceremonies, tackling student participation in pub crawls and monitoring anti-social behaviour.
Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker has claimed the project will help the University become a ‘safer and more productive place to study and live’ through its encouragement of responsible drinking, as a response to the encouragement of students “to participate in alcohol fuelled activities which can damage health and in some cases spill over into disorder and anti-social behaviour”
In order to encourage the scheme of changing attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol, the university is committed to the formal training for university staff on the harm alcohol can cause and developing social alternatives to licensed premises is also among the criteria which the university will be working towards, this has already been seen in such things as ‘Roller Disco’, and other alternative non-alcohol nights during past Fresher weeks.
Little is known around how much this scheme will really change the face of Fresher’s week and other university nights, but increased awareness of alcohol issues and a change in attitudes towards binge drinking can only be a good thing in terms of student welfare and community relations.
Katrina Goddard
