What happened during Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week 2024?

Join us in celebrating Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week 2024 – it was our biggest awareness week yet, with 46 pledges from Universities, Students’ Unions and drug and alcohol organisations from across the UK!

We wanted to showcase some of the amazing work achieved during this week, which included plenty of student engagement opportunities, information sharing and collaboration work with local drug and alcohol services. This week a great example of how the sector is making meaningful changes in the area of student drug and alcohol use.

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Drug & Alcohol Education

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Shout out to AJ Martin (Co-project Lead, Head of Research) and Joanna (Trustee, Former Head of Research) from the Benzo Research Project who gave a guest lecture to 3rd year criminology students at the University of Kent on Harm reduction for young people who use benzos. As part of this lecture, students were asked to share their ideas on what could be done to reduce benzo-related harms. A great example of encouraging student involvement and co-creation in this area!

Another great example of sharing drug and alcohol education during this period came from the Student Support and Wellbeing Services at UCL.They hosted a stall in their Student Centre offering information on support available to students, and providing educational tools, such as unit cups for students to take away.

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Social Media

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Social media proved a popular way of engaging students this Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week, with many institutions using their social media channels to share educational resources and raise awareness of the week among their student body.

The University of Lincoln and Lincoln Students’ Union used this week as an opportunity to open up the conversation around drugs and alcohol, as well as sharing general wellbeing tips alongside their Student Wellbeing Team. As part of the support offered this week, the University and Students’ Union advertised and ran a drug and alcohol drop-in, aimed at offering confidential advice and support. Through openly advertising such initiatives, we’re sure many more students have been able to benefit from the support provided!

Keele University and Keele University Students’ Union also used social media to engage with students during this week, using Instagram stories to run games such as ‘Guess the Units’ (fun and educational!) and poll students on their attitudes towards sober socials and what sort of activities students would like to see. Their social media engagement reached over 4,400 views on one Instagram story, an amazing achievement!

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Fun and Games (literally!)

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It was really exciting to see so many innovative ways of engaging students during this week, with many different activities and games on offer to provide opportunities for open conversations.

Keele University and Keele University Students’ Union had a jam-packed schedule of alcohol-free activities, educational games and even sober salsa! One activity, Leave the Mixing to the DJ, aimed to educate students about the potential risks associated with mixing drugs and was led by the DMK student society.

This event engaged 40-50 students, with many noting that they were previously unaware of Keele’s harm reduction approach. Once they were talked to about the approach, the students were impressed and responded positively. Students were also given the opportunity to have open conversations with each other about harm reduction behaviours for drug consumption, including drug testing.

The Residence Life team at University of Lincoln also got involved with Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week, offering a full timetable of alcohol-free events. Their Wednesday night crochet craft club offered a great alternative to students who wanted to skip the Lincoln nightlife!

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Thank you to everyone who took part in Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week 2024, and we already can’t wait to see what 2025 brings!

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