By Sinead Noble and Fiona Murray

Kingston University's student bars face closure after racking up losses totalling more than £115,000 in the last year alone.

The losses were revealed in the last set of student union accounts and show that the only one of the university's three bars to turn a profit was at Knights Park.

Every week the bars are open they lose £2,500 between them.

Kingston Student Union general manager, Mark Horne, said: "The current student union model isn't sustainable. It won't be here in the current model in five to six years. It's a mad business model.

"Many unions have already opted out of bars or downsized their bar offering, and this trend will continue for many unions."

Around the country, student unions are ditching their failing bars.

Anglia Ruskin University turned its pub into a gym and Wolverhampton has handed its drinking venues back to the University.

Kingston's bars have been propped up by large hand-outs from the university.

Mr Horne said: "Kingston University recognises that the bars are part of the social fabric of life at university; that they are another of the services the union provides - not just a commercial activity."

• £115,000 - how much KU's student bars lost last year
• 33% of KU students teetotal (according to Mark Horne)
• £3.28 for a pint of Fosters in The Spring Grove 
• £2.20 for a pint of Fosters in KU's The Space bar, the same as Scream's The Mill

 

On Wednesday evening there were only around 30 people drinking in The Space bar on the Penrhyn Road campus which is described by the student union as KU's largest and busiest bar.

Third year student, Ryan Nash, said: "The SU's have got a bad vibe. I wouldn't care if they closed."

Mr Horne attributed the bars' problems to students choosing to drink in town, as well as the large numbers of teetotal students and students who commute. 

He also admitted that the venues could be of a higher standard.