Oxford has come near the bottom of a drinking survey, ranking 59th of the 68 participating universities.
Student Beans questioned a total of 2,027 university students at these universities. Oxford students were shown to drink a weekly average of 13.8 units of alcohol per student. This figure comes in below the limits recommended for either males or females by the health website “Patient.co.uk”. The website recommends that men don’t drink more than 21 units per week and that women don’t exceed 14 units.
It seems that northerners drink the most, with Leeds Met and Liverpool topping the list, and and the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, coming in third. The average student at each of these three universities exceeds 26 units of alcohol per week. However, 14% of students participating said that they drink more than 30 units of alcohol every week whilst at university.
Anna Richmond, a first-year student reading Classics and English at Trinity, told Cherwell that she was “rather disappointed” to see Oxford so low down on the list. She added, “There’s definitely a link betwen our workload and the fact we drink less. We’re so busy day to day that you can’t really afford to have a hangover.”
Indeed, many universities whose courses are viewed as the most challenging academically are to be found near the bottom of the list. Cambridge ranks 51st, with an average consumption of 14.7 units per student per week, as does Warwick. Bristol comes in just behind with 14.6 units.
As part of their survey, Student Beans produced some statistics around the figures, revealing that a lot of students see drinking as essential to social life at university. 57% agree that alcohol helps you make friends at university, with 37% of students drinking at least 3 times a week. One fifth of students said that they “would not be able to survive a term at university without drinking alcohol”.
When asked, many Oxford students couldn’t put a figure the number of units they consume in a week. Cherwell spoke to second year biologist Claire Thorpe, who said, “I don’t really know how much I drink on a weekly basis – a bottle of wine, five tequilas, some jägerbombs. It’s hard to keep track because I often get drinks bought for me.”
Interestingly, however, Oxford ranks much higher in Student Beans’ sex survey conducted earlier this year, placing 32nd out of the 59 universities taking part.
For many Oxford students, it seems that alcohol and sex are inextricably linked. When asked what her motivations for drinking were, a student from St Hugh’s who wished to remain anonymous told Cherwell that she drinks “so that men will take advantage”.
While Oxford students may place sex over alcohol, Cambridge’s priorities seem different: the other place came significantly lower than Oxford in the sex survey. While Oxford students have slept with an average of 5.6 people in their lifetime, Cambridge students have only slept with an average of 3.7 people.
Immi Effendi, a second-year Human Sciences student at St Hugh’s seems to think that there’s certainly a connection between Cambridge’s thirst and its dry-spell, saying, “They are obviously driven to drink because they’re not getting any.”
