When Trinity students voted against making the campus a cannabis- friendly zone recently and student bar profits at UCD fell by 20 per cent, it seemed that it might be time to lay the angry, young student stereotype to rest. So are today's students a new breed?

Here's the stock image of The Student - young, liberal and fancy-free. Occasionally turning up for lectures, students are more preoccupied with where they can find the cheapest night out or best-priced pint than making money by getting on the career ladder as quickly as possible.

Exams? Well, they are just something they do to ensure they can continue the good life of a student for another year or two.

But there's been some bad news for those wedded to old-fashioned stereotypes. This image has been taken something of a pounding in recent weeks.

First, a majority of Trinity College Dublin students rejected calls for their campus to be made a "cannabis-friendly" zone and told their student union to opt out of any campaign for the legislation of pot.

Then it emerges that profits at two of UCD's main student bars are down some 20 per cent as a result of "changing student habits".

Irish third-level students, it seems, are becoming more serious, arguably more conservative and altogether much more sensible than their predecessors.

So, as Marvin Gaye might say, what's going on?

Brendan Tangney, junior dean at TCD says the popular image of students being hedonistic pleasure-seekers is just not true. Instead, they are more "practical" in their approach, he says. "They know there was no way the college authorities were going to allow people to smoke dope while walking around the campus," he says. "But it is not that they are less idealistic, but that they are idealistic in a more focused way."

Students may be opting out of drink and drugs but some are chanelling their energies elsewhere.

One of the largest and most popular societies in TCD is the St Vincent de Paul society, while the "med-day" organised by medical students has also become a hugely popular annual event, Tangney points out.

"Students are engaged in other activities, which are maybe not as high-profile," he says. "It's easy to go on a march and protest. But I think these people are actually doing stuff on the ground."

There are other factors at work. Some observers say the Class of 2005 is much less exercised about changing the world than their predecessors. Getting students to march on issues of concern to them is increasingly difficult.

It can be done. Witness the large-scale student protests against the war in Iraq. But most students, most of the time, do not see any point in protesting.

Students did get exercised about the possible return of third-level fees last year. But these protests were fuelled by very practical concerns about money and costs.

This has prompted the suggestion that Irish students are more preoccupied with getting on the career ladder and making money than changing the world.

Interestingly, one contributing factor may be the Leaving Certificate and the points race. The proliferation of grind schools has contributed to students learning how to "work the system" rather than enjoying learning for learning's sake.

Francis Kieran, president of TCD Students' Union says the points-race mentality may also be at work for some college students.

He is also aware that more students are choosing not to drink alcohol - although binge-drinking is still a significant problem among students.

It does not necessarily mean staudents are any less liberal, Kieran believes.

"I think what we're seeing now isn't a mé féin attitude. It isn't Paris in 1968, but students will turn out for issues they care about," he says.

This includes engaging in letter-writing campaigns about issues such as rights for same-sex couples. "People are caring, but they are doing that in a different way. They are more practical, they know riots are not the way to go," he says. "I would say student activism is alive and well. But whether it is as rabidly socialist as the 1960s stereotype can be very much doubted."

His counterpart in UCD, Fergal Scully says he is aware of a change in student attitudes. "Students are much more serious about their college work. There is more of an emphasis on doing as well as you can in the job market and getting into the job market," he explains.

But he believes the fall-off in bar sales at UCD's two student bars simply reflects a more general trend among other bars throughout the State.

"Students don't have as much money as they used to, so they are drinking at home more. But I don't think they are drinking less . . . if anything, they are drinking more."

While there has been a significant increase in the number of students making it to third level, many also have to work part-time to put themselves through college, meaning they simply don't have time to get involved in student politics, he points out.

"Richer students don't have to worry about [ cutbacks] because they can afford them. I think it has a lot to do with the way society has gone in terms of materialism. But you can't single students out with that, it's about all of Irish society," he says.

"There's plenty of students who are passionate about the state of the world, and there are plenty who are not . . . But I also think it is a more general thing in the western world, where people just don't think they can make a difference any more."