Universities spend considerable time thinking about belonging, inclusion and student experience. Yet one aspect of campus culture often goes unexamined: the assumption that everyone drinks.
A 2024 YouGov survey for the Portman Group found that 18–24-year-olds are now the biggest consumers of low and no alcohol alternatives in the UK, with 44 per cent identifying as occasional or regular drinkers of them, up from 31 per cent just two years earlier.
The same age group is also the most sober overall: 39 per cent of 18–24-year-olds don’t drink alcohol at all.
Whatever is happening on campus, it isn’t the drinking culture it perhaps used to be.
Having founded the Not Everyone Drinks campaign and movement, there are some simple things universities can do to include students who don’t drink – this stretches far beyond simply protecting people who may be in recovery.
Where the campaign started
The campaign began when HelloFresh sent a can of cider to my home, unordered and with no ID check – unwanted, and risky, given I’m in long-term recovery from addiction.
There it sat, this glistening can of cider, among the leeks.
In recovery, exposure like that isn’t a small thing – it only takes one drink to undo years of work.
The campaign reached BBC, local news, the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), Alcohol Change UK, Alcohol Health Alliance and the Society for the Study of Addiction within less than a month.
HelloFresh has since paused its alcohol-sampling campaigns as a direct result.
Four simple things
The four asks are things unions can do to protect students for a myriad of reasons that go beyond being in recovery – people may not drink due to culture, religion, health, trauma or simply choice. The campaign’s asks are:
- Alcohol should only ever be opt-in by default – never opt-out.
- Inclusion audits on marketing communications: are events marketed towards people who don’t drink?
- Sobriety-inclusive policies across the students’ union and university: how are colleagues and students who don’t drink being included?
- Industry recognition of sober consumers: do events, spaces and places recognise the growing number of colleagues and students who choose not to drink?
Putting this into practice
In practice, this means never assuming that someone drinks, and purposely creating spaces and events that include those who don’t, without them needing to explain why they refrain.
A simple audit question to start with: does your Freshers’ Week programme include a single event that isn’t built around a bar, a pub crawl or free shots?
If not, that’s the first gap to close.
Beyond that, ensure each event has alcohol-free options and space, and display the posters supplied on the campaign’s website, so students and colleagues know this is a safe space for people who choose not to drink, for any reason.
A culture that made no room for no
I remember my own university days, when life centred around partying and drinking until we couldn’t attend lectures because of the after-effects of our nights out. Lectures were missed as we went to the pub instead.
I remember trying to stop drinking then, and facing judgement and mocking. It was very hard to socialise with a group who drank when I’d chosen not to. I can quite imagine many students feel this way.
For neurodivergent students like me – while each of us is a unique individual and it’s important not to generalise – it would be fair to say that some of us can struggle in social situations, and pressure to drink can feel strong.
Imagine, then, a culture where “Not Everyone Drinks” becomes the norm. If someone says no, they only say no; they needn’t feel they must explain their reasoning.
“Fancy a beer?” “No.” “Okay, no worries.”
It really should be that simple. No is a sentence, and we all have a responsibility to ensure it is enough.
Building genuine belonging
The World Health Organisation estimates that alcohol consumption caused 2.6 million deaths worldwide in 2019, according to its 2024 fact sheet on alcohol.
Changing the culture within universities can help protect students now and as they go into their future lives – normalising the fact that not everyone drinks, and ensuring those who feel pressured or left out of social events and situations are protected.
Universities rightly invest in widening participation and belonging.
But if students only feel they belong when they participate in alcohol-centred socialising, have we really built inclusive communities?
Free downloadable posters for events, Freshers’ Weeks, bars, social spaces and marketing are available on the campaign’s website at www.idinclusion.org/resources.
Unions or universities wanting support turning any of this into practice – from auditing events and marketing through a sober-inclusive lens to staff and society training – can get in touch via samantha@idinclusion.org or www.idinclusion.org.
