These are the university courses where students drink the most

Law students drink the most, a new study has suggested.

In total 11.3 per cent of students – more than one in 10 – said they had misused alcohol in the past year.

New research from Irish universities Ulster and the Atlantic Technological University looked at over 1,800 first year students from five campuses across the two unis.

It looked at rates of various mental health issues across different subjects, including depression and anxiety, as well as rates of drug and alcohol abuse.

Life and health sciences students reported the lowest rates of alcohol abuse (7.8 per cent), followed by computing and engineering students (10.5 per cent) and arts, humanities and social science students (14.5 per cent). Business school students reported the highest alcohol misuse rates, at 16.6 per cent.

However, when these wider faculties were broken down, it suggested there may be differences between individual courses:

Law – 16.1 per cent

Business – 15.3 per cent

Engineering – 11.o per cent

Mental health nursing – 10.2 per cent

Computing – 9.8 per cent

Art – 8.4 per cent

Psychology – 6.6 per cent

Nursing – 6.5 per cent

The study’s authors said the differences in rates of different mental health issues across courses may mean support could be “tailored” for students taking different courses, based on their needs.

“This may be even more important, since the pandemic, when students were working remotely, with some cohorts missing out on practical classes, lab work and placements, with many struggling since the return to face-to face leaning”, it said.

Featured image before edits via Mark Broadhead/Unsplash

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