New student profile prompts re-think on campus alcohol

A London university is considering establishing alcohol-free zones on its campuses because so many of its students consider drinking to be immoral, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.

Professor Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University, said the selling of alcohol was an issue of "cultural sensitivity" at his institution, where a fifth of students are Muslim. Speaking to a conference of university administrators in Manchester, he said that for many students, drinking alcohol was "an immoral experience".

He told the Guardian the makeup of his institution had changed considerably over the past few decades. In the past it had been "substantially Anglo Saxon – now 20% of our students are Muslim," he said. "We therefore need to rethink how we cater for that 21st-century balance.”
Full report on the Guardian site