\n<\/p>\n
F<\/span>or as long as anyone can remember, drinking has been a key part of the student experience \u2013 but this is changing. An increasing number of young people are turning away from drinking, with a 2024 poll by Student Beans finding that half of first-year students did not plan to drink during their freshers\u2019 week.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re considering a teetotal uni experience, or want to limit your drinking, here are four places to look for sober fun.<\/p>\n Societies<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the easiest ways to find like-minded people and make friends without alcohol is to join any society that you\u2019re interested in. There are more than 10,000 societies across all universities in the UK, with at least 50 to choose from at most universities, many of which do not involve alcohol.<\/p>\n Georgia Burdis, a vice-president of activities at Northumbria University, says that for \u201cstudents who don\u2019t drink, university can still be a very rewarding social experience when you find the right spaces\u201d and advises teetotal students to \u201cseek out communities that align with your intentions rather than the social norms of alcohol consumption. This way you will naturally build meaningful friendships\u201d.<\/p>\n Parties<\/strong><\/p>\n It is absolutely possible to go to parties where people are drinking and still have fun while sober. Although it might be outside your comfort zone, try at least one to find out if you enjoy it.<\/p>\n If you want to go to a party with other people like yourself, there is a surprising amount of choice. Sober parties have fast become normalised, with events spreading across the country. In Glasgow, for example, Good Clean Fun puts on monthly ticketed events that combine a variety of musical genres with activities such as meditation.<\/p>\n Enjoy the outdoors<\/strong><\/p>\n A study by the Mental Health Foundation found that 39% of students did not do regular exercise, often citing tiredness and a preference for socialising. So how about combining looking after your health with making friends in the process?<\/p>\n Most universities will have great sportsfacilities and a plethora of teams you can join, with something to suit all ability levels. Ask at your fresher\u2019s fair to find the perfect fit.<\/p>\n For something more intrepid, outdoor societies such as Dundee University\u2019s Rucksack club, the University of Plymouth\u2019s Adventure & expo group and the University of London Mountaineering club take advantage of the local countryside and are open to people of all backgrounds and experience levels.<\/p>\n Games<\/strong><\/p>\n You might think only mature students would enjoy playing board games \u2013 but you\u2019d be wrong. One study by Edge Hill University (pdf) found that 26.9% of board game players are between the ages of 18 and 25.<\/p>\n There are a surprising number of games clubs and campus societies dedicated to them. Edge Hill has several, including the Poker and card games society, which says new members should \u201cfeel free to bring along any card game you wanna play and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll enjoy playing too!\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For as long as anyone can remember, drinking has been a key part of the student experience \u2013 but this is changing. An increasing number of young people are turning away from drinking, with a 2024 poll by Student Beans finding that half of first-year students did not plan to drink during their freshers\u2019 week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[979,9547,5064,1651,489,781],"class_list":{"0":"post-21342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-alcohol","9":"tag-booze","10":"tag-friends","11":"tag-problem","12":"tag-universities","13":"tag-university"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}