Students still binge drink, but the focus is swiftly shifting towards health and exercise, writes Ali Bracken
Irish third-level undergraduate students spend more money each month on alcohol than food, and binge drinking is "the norm" for them.
These are just two sobering findings from Ireland's first large-scale survey examining the health of students, the College Lifestyle Attitudinal National (Clan) survey, published last year.
"I suppose students could argue that because the price of drink is so high they spend more on alcohol than food. I wasn't really that surprised by that finding," says Cindy Dring, one of the authors of the report and health promotion officer at National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).
But it isn't all bad news. The survey also found that the majority of students are physically active, much more so than the rest of the population, with many availing of the ever-expanding college sporting and recreational amenities.
As Irish universities and Institutes of Technology (ITs) begin to take a more rounded approach to education with emphasis on health research and significant investment in sports amenities, is the drinking culture in Irish universities slowly beginning to change?
Some signs suggest that it is. Once one of Dublin's most thriving pubs, the sports bar at University College Dublin (UCD) has closed its doors and is due to reopen as a juice bar.
"It closed because the college felt a bar doesn't fit well in a sports centre," says Suzanne Bailey, sports development manager at UCD.
Sales in the bar had been down in the past three years, as they had in the two other bars in UCD, so this factor helped make the decision, she adds.
Bailey says there has been a definite decrease in student drinking at UCD in the recent past and the university's clubs and sporting facilities are thriving. One of the most noticeable trends, she says, is a huge interest in martial arts and women's field sports.
"There is a definite move towards individual sports that people can pursue in their own time at their own pace," she says.
Catherine Lenihan, a third-year sport and exercise student at the University of Limerick (UL), believes there has been a shift in students' attitudes towards their health. "The culture is definitely changing. People are very aware of their health nowadays.
You only have to look at how our obesity levels are catching up with the US to understand why people are making the effort to get active."
UL is the only university or college in Ireland with a 50-metre Olympic-size swimming pool and it boasts a range of other indoor and outdoor sporting facilities. A large sporting arena at the university houses a state-of-the-art gym and has become the social hub on campus, Lenihan says.
"Instead of drinking to socialise, a lot of people go to the gym now to meet people."
It's easy for students to fall into unhealthy drinking patterns, she says, and of course students are likely to drink to excess occasionally, but things are slowly improving. "In the past two years here, I've noticed a change, there's only one bar left on campus now."
From rural Cork, Lenihan says the facilities at UL were a deciding factor in her choice of university. It is now a must for third-level institutions to provide top-notch facilities in order to remain competitive, says Deirdre Corcoran, manager of the sport and recreation centre at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).
Plans are in the pipeline for DIT to acquire a large indoor and outdoor facility in Grangegorman. "It's what students want nowadays and exercise is a great way to relieve stress, so it's hugely important," she explains.
DIT will soon begin rewarding students who participate in sport too. "Students involved in sport will receive credits that form part of their academic record," Corcoran says.
"Right now, we're researching and reviewing the concept, it's very popular in the US." Health research departments have gone to the top of the agenda in many universities. Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has developed a department of health, sport & exercise science, offering a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes to students and it is the only third-level provider running an MA in sports psychology in Ireland.
Last year, UL became the first university in Ireland to appoint a professor of physical education and youth sport.
Dr Mary O'Sullivan's role is to promote physical activity through research and sports science. "We have little Irish research in relation to physical activity and have to draw from international research a lot. I think it's important that we begin to gather data and that's part of what my role is about.
Colleges all over the country are now beginning to compile data examining why kids drop out of sport in their teens before they come to university," she explains.
While O'Sullivan acknowledges that third-level institutes have come a long way in terms of sporting amenities, she says it's vital that access to such facilities become available to second-level students if healthy lifestyle patterns are to be established.
"We've found over and over again, if you're inactive when you're young, you're more likely to be inactive when you're older. If second level students had more access to some of the facilities colleges now offer, participation will increase at third-level when these kids eventually become college students."
Students' drinking patterns can also be tackled, she says, by offering appealing alternatives. "Right now, girls love to dance. I'd love to see the Irish Sports Council support this. If they did, they'd reach a target population who are far too inactive," O'Sullivan says.
It's fair to say that student drinking patterns are often established far before they enrol at college. And despite colleges' best efforts to promote activity, maybe it comes a little too late.
The Clan report suggests that student drinking habits should be of serious concern. One in 10 students uses alcohol to forget worries and one in 20 uses alcohol when anxious or depressed. More than 60 per cent of male students engage in binge drinking once a week. For females, 44 per cent report at least weekly binge drinking.
More than 3,200 undergraduate students in full-time third-level education across the country responded to the Clan survey during the 2002/2003 academic year.
On the plus side, over half of all students perceive their general health as excellent or very good. Two-thirds are satisfied with their health and the vast majority think their quality of life is very good or good.
Almost 70 per cent of students describe themselves as fairly to very physically active, with male students more physically active than females. Half of all students participate in sport, with twice as many males participating as females.
"Women's activity is something that we are concerned about and need to improve. The range of clubs and activities at third-level is broadening.
Two of our most popular activities are juggling and dancing at NUIG at the moment,'' says Dring.
It seems that colleges have to keep up to date to hold students' attention. Kite surfing and ultimate frisbee are two of the current crazes at UCD, while at UL, aqua juggling is proving popular and the lifesaving club, where students can train as lifeguards, is also appealing to students.
At DIT, the carting club is proving a hit. "I'd like to say the drinking culture is changing, but it'll be a long process," says Dave Mahedy, director of sport and recreation at UL.
"Binge drinking is still a big problem in colleges all over the country. I think some students just think it's what they should be doing. It's just another mini-culture part of the bigger Irish culture," Mahedy says.