Student-led communication ‘key’ to combating campus drug use

Student peer-to-peer communication is “crucial” in tackling drug use on campuses, experts said.

Nic Beech, vice-chancellor of Middlesex University, said the Universities UK drug-use task force that he chairs is trying to understand the use of drugs in the student population and how the sector can proceed to ensure that policies are successful.

Speaking at a Westminster Higher Education Forum conference, he outlined the key design principles of a sector framework encompassing supply and demand reduction, support, treatment and recovery.

“The crucial thing here is peer-to-peer communications,” he said. “The evidence shows that as soon as something sounds as if it’s preaching, as if it’s top-down, as if it’s authoritarian then it typically fails to reach the very part of the student population that we hope to reach.”

Professor Beech said evidence has shown that peer-to-peer communications, such as student films, are far more effective than guidance from universities themselves in terms of pick-up, viewing and impact because they are direct, clear and from student to student.

The task force, which has been operating for just over a year, will report its findings later this summer.

It is widely expected to recommend moves away from a “zero tolerance” approach to one focused on “harm reduction” with support and education prioritised over disciplining students who are using drugs. 

Nehaal Bajwa, vice-president for equality and liberation at the National Union of Students, agreed that student-led communications are key because they are more effective.

“The ripple effect is really important to think about when it comes to reducing harm in the community,” she told the conference.

“We can never be in halls at all times and that’s apparently largely where students are taking drugs, after [student unions] and staff have gone home.”

Students need to be equipped to inform each other and look after each other as part of a strong student community, she said.

Other design principles for the framework include the importance to establish student agency in any educational setting, so students can see there is a “clear motivational direction”.

Professor Beech said that establishing motivation is “absolutely crucial” in encouraging students away from drugs.

“Educationally, if all you’ve got is a negative emotion not to do something then it’s really quite hard to maintain that over time,” he said.

“Cognition alone is not typically going to be an effective motivating factor and therefore we need to have the pull through to positive educational outcomes.”

Professor Beech also said that all processes of inclusion need to be adaptable and flexible, and that young people need to be enabled to fit in and socialise in ways that do not rely on drugs or alcohol.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com