In many people’s minds, the term “freshers’ week” has become synonymous with drinking. In fact, research carried out by the organisation Drug and Alcohol Impact found that, before going to university, over 50 per cent of young people assumed that students got drunk most of the time. Evidently, when students come to university with this mindset, freshers’ week begins to revolve solely around alcohol.
Drinking culture at university is largely bolstered by clubbing culture – two things that seem to go hand-in-hand. For many students, coming to university may be the first time they’ve had the freedom to go clubbing with their friends. Or for those from smaller towns, it may be the first time that they have lived so close to such a plethora of clubs.
When asked about their opinion on freshers’ week drinking culture, one student at the University of Edinburgh reported that: “I don’t feel pressure to drink, but I do feel pressure to go ‘out’, which inevitably ends up involving drinking.” This clubbing culture is cultivated in part over social media, with well-known Edinburgh clubs like Why Not and The Liquid Rooms taking to Instagram to boast that they host “Edinburgh’s biggest and best club night” and have the “hottest tickets in town”. Especially for incoming freshers, social media can become an echo chamber of noise constantly promoting drinking culture.
But does this culture continue past first year? A fourth year Edinburgh student claimed that: “Drinking culture feels quite different going into fourth year. You don’t feel the same pressure to be drinking and going out every night in freshers just to make friends.” Another student said that: “People still like to go out and drink, but I think flat parties become much more common after first year.” Seemingly, drinking culture doesn’t just disappear once you’re no longer a fresher, but instead takes on a different form.
Drinking culture is typically talked about in a pejorative manner – which it certainly should be when it encourages a habit of binge-drinking – but is it all entirely harmful? If drinking, clubbing, and partying can be carried out safely and in moderation, then why should it be so harshly condemned? After all, it seems that many people view it as an arguably unavoidable part of the university experience.
Framing drinking culture as a problem to be eradicated can become a problem in itself. When done in moderation, drinking can be a fun and, to some, an integral part of university life. It seems almost impossible to separate drinking and clubbing from university culture, especially given that 76 per cent of students agree that drinking and getting drunk is part of university life (Drug and Alcohol Impact), so perhaps a focus on ensuring drinking is carried out safely would be more beneficial.
While from the outside, it may seem that drinking culture permeates every aspect of freshers’ week, a closer exploration reveals that this is not the case. At such a large university like Edinburgh with such a myriad of societies, there is something for everyone, even those who don’t wish to drink.
Many societies have made active efforts to host non-drinking socials, leaning away from pub crawls. Events like “bookshop crawls” and “café crawls” are just some of the events that have been advertised by societies this year, playing on the concept of a pub crawl but removing the drinking element.
Even though clubbing and drinking seem to some as inextricable from each other, further research from Drug and Alcohol Impact found that 78 per cent of students reported that they don’t need to get drunk to have a good night out. This demonstrates that perhaps drinking culture does not permeate as deeply into university society as previously thought, and is perhaps more of a surface level craze that is largely bolstered by social media.
While we should not blindly condemn drinking culture at university, it is also important to help people escape the echo chamber of social media that falsely prepares students for an inescapable culture of drinking. At Edinburgh specifically, it seems that students — particularly freshers — feel the weight of this culture, and this continues in some form into later years of university life. But in order to create an inclusive community, it is integral that societies continue to promote events which counter freshers’ week drinking culture, not because this culture is inherently bad, but because alternatives ensure that all students feel included in freshers’ week.