A Qualitative Analysis of Alcohol in St Andrews: Culture, Policy, Sobriety, and Community. What are the implicit and explicit effects of alcohol on students on the broader St Andrews community?
December 2024
Authors: Selina Hienzsch, Helena Kelechi Nnamoko, Amara Baker-Onyancha, Boyd Stephen, Elena Azais Tatistscheff
Junior Editor: Hollister May
Deputy Editor: Grace Risucci
Editor-in-Chief: Cadence Mak
Executive Summary
This report aims to provide a strong understanding of alcohol in St Andrews. Through a range of in-depth interviews, the report recognises the increasing prevalence of sobriety among university students in the UK. Through exploring the experiences and understandings of alcohol in St Andrews, this report will analyse: why students are increasingly choosing sobriety, the struggles behind becoming sober, St Andrews traditions, cultural integration challenges as well as examining the structural discourse surrounding alcohol in St Andrews. Through this, the report aims to contribute to a more holistic understanding of alcohol in St Andrews, encouraging positive changes in alcohol discourse and guidelines around the university.
Recommendations
Drawing from both primary and secondary research, the report presents the following recommendations:
Encourage increased publication of the negative impacts of alcohol, discouraging peer pressure and clearly stating alcohol limit guidelines. This is to help reduce normalised unhealthy drinking practices in St Andrews, possibly in the form of posters, social media or workshops. Importantly, the information needs to be easily accessible and highly visible to students, for example bathroom toilets, residence halls, and Instagram accounts.
Point towards the social exclusion that sober students experience, advocate for the reduction of alcohol-centric events, and specifically urge university societies to make events less alcohol-centric given all respondents noted how most social events are alcohol focused.
Promote an overall shift of the social norms in St Andrews towards making sobriety more acceptable. This could span from an individual level, such as encouraging students to not question or exclude sober students, to a structural level such as increasing the price of alcohol units.