Giving league tables a bad name

This kind of thing really shouldn’t be given any airtime Yes, sad to say it is the ‘University Drinking League’. Fortunately it does not deserve to be taken at all seriously given that it is simply self-reported consumption by students. Being the responsible folks that we are we would never stoop to making lazy generalisations, … Continued

This kind of thing really shouldn’t be given any airtime

Yes, sad to say it is the ‘University Drinking League’. Fortunately it does not deserve to be taken at all seriously given that it is simply self-reported consumption by students.

Being the responsible folks that we are we would never stoop to making lazy generalisations, so you can decide whether or not you’re surprised to find Queen’s University Belfast sitting top of the pile – with each student drinking a headache-inducing 27.3 units per week.

The uni in second place – Heriot-Watt – also came second in this year’s University Sex League, suggesting that its students have found more than a couple of ways to keep out the cold during the harsh Scottish winter.

The top three is rounded off with Bath Spa (who came in 4th place in the 2011 drinking league), whilst at the other end of the table we find Wolverhampton, Glasgow and Robert Gorden Uni propping things up – with the latter having an average of just 11 units per student per week.

Average units drunk per student per week
1	Queen’s University Belfast	27.3
2	Heriot-Watt University	26.3
3	Bath Spa University	26.3
4	University of Hull	26.1
5	Sheffield Hallam University	24.5
6	University of Strathclyde	24.3
7	University of Wales Institute, Cardiff	23.9
8	Nottingham Trent University	23.8
9	University College London	23.1
10	University of Manchester	22.7
11	Swansea University	22.7
12	University of Aberdeen	22.5
13	University of Leeds	22.3
14	University of Edinburgh	22.1
15	Manchester Metropolitan University	21.6
16	Bangor University	21.5
17	University of Liverpool	20.8
18	University of Glamorgan	20.7
19	University of Plymouth	20.6
20	University of York	20.5

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, from the same source we have the ‘University Sex League 2012 where self-reporting is likely to be even less reliable than with alcohol consumption:

After the University of Glamorgan topped the list last year, the Welsh domination of the bedroom continues as Bangor University find themselves in pole position with 8.31 sexual partners per student. Llongyfarchiadau! (That’s Welsh for ‘congrats’, by the way.)

The former table-toppers have slipped to 15th, whilst their neighbours Aberystwyth Uni find themselves in the top five for the second consecutive year.

At the other end of the spectrum it would seem that The Only Way is No-Sex, with The University of Essex propping up the rest of the table with just 1.15 sexual partners per student.

Rank	University	Average number of sexual partners since starting uni*
1	Bangor University	8.31
2	Heriot-Watt University	5.8
3	University of Plymouth	5.75
4	Liverpool John Moores University	5.48
5	Aberystwyth University	5.34
6	Manchester Metropolitan University	5.31
7	Brunel University	5.22
8	Aston University	5.19
9	Sheffield Hallam University	4.89
10	Teesside University	4.86
11	University of Wolverhampton	4.86
12	Swansea University	4.75
13	Newcastle University	4.72
14	Edge Hill University	4.7
15	University of Glamorgan	4.67
16	University of Huddersfield	4.66
17	University of Cambridge	4.62
18	University of Exeter	4.59
19	University of Portsmouth	4.53
20	University of Wales Institute, Cardiff	4.52