By Mashaal Mir and Joe Longley
Kingston University students have the happiest livers in the country, according to the National Student Drinking Survey.
Conducted by popular lifestyle website Student Beans, the survey polled students from 68 universities across the country about their drinking habits and placed Kingston University in a sober 66th place.
“A significant proportion of students we surveyed feel that alcohol is synonymous with a good social life and a key factor in making friends,” said Olivia Mason, communications officer for Student Beans. “Alcohol is an important part of uni life for many students. However that doesn’t necessarily mean that every student in the UK goes over the edge.”
According to the survey, Kingston students on average consume 10.6 units of alcohol per week – compared to students from Leeds University, who drink more than twice as much, coming first on the survey with 26.7 units a week.
Charlie Dennis, a KU graphic design and photography student, said his sobriety had an economic motive: “At the moment I’m drinking nothing because it’s so much cheaper not to drink,” he said.
“It has been particularly interesting to hear the views of those students that don’t drink alcohol and what they think of the culture of their fellow students,” said Ms Mason.
A potential contributing factor to these sobering statistics could be the higher population of Muslim students studying in Kingston, many of whom do not drink for religious reasons.
However, some KU students are raising a sceptical eyebrow at the survey. With an abundance of pubs in Kingston and packed Wednesday nights at Oceana, students are finding it hard to believe that their fellow colleagues are staying booze-free.
See what some Kingston students thought of the study below.