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Students starting university are this week being warned of the dangers of initiation ceremonies, almost three years after an undergraduate was killed as a result of the “toxic effects” of such events.
Ed Farmer died after excessive drinking at an initiation event run by Newcastle University’s agricultural society in 2016. Karen Dilks, the coroner at the inquest into his death, called on universities to issue more forceful warnings about the dangers of alcohol for first-year students.
As part of its response, Newcastle University worked with Universities UK to publish guidance about the potential physical risks of initiation ceremonies and the bullying and coercion that can be involved.
At the time of the inquest, Farmer’s parents expressed frustration at the “inactivity” of the university and its student union over initiation ceremonies.
But in a foreword to the Initiations at UK Universities guidance, Jeremy and Helen Farmer say they hope the document could save lives.
They write: “If students were made aware of the dangers of drinking large volumes of spirits in short periods of time and maybe aware of the signs of someone that is no longer just drunk but in a life-limiting state, and use the example of Ed to give the message some relevance, then possibly just one student might be luckier on a night out than Ed.”
The guidance stops short of calling for an outright ban on initiation ceremonies as some parents have suggested.
Instead it seeks to raise awareness among students and staff of risky behaviour involved in initiation ceremoniesincluding advertising support available to students.
It claims that a blanket ban would be “unhelpful” because it could encourage initiation ceremonies “into private spaces, such as off-campus accommodation” where they would be more dangerous and difficult to monitor.
ProfChris Day, the vice-chancellor of Newcastle University, said: “The situation Ed found himself in that night which led to him drinking an excessive quantity of alcohol over a very short period of time, together with a lack of knowledge from his fellow students about the dangers of drinking to excess, resulted in the most tragic of outcomes.
“We all wish we could rewind three years and change what happened that night. But we can’t go back and so, instead, we are looking forward and doing everything we can to minimise the chances of anything like this happening again.”
He pointed out that such deaths were “vanishingly rare” and added: “Sometimes physical but often mental damage can be done by attending these events, where you are coerced or bullied into doing things you don’t want to do”.
“It could be excess alcohol, it might be ingesting something horrible and toxic or it might be drug-related, it might be getting them to walk along the parapet of a bridge. It could be anything like that which has an element of coercion, forcing or bullying which we are trying to stamp out.”
He said that the behaviour typically occurred with junior students being coerced by more senior students and that, while much attention is placed on freshers’ week, these types of events are just as likely to happen at other times.
The universities minister, Chris Skidmore, said: “It is a shame that such a tragic case brought this issue to light, but it is important that students will now have access to increased information and that universities can use their position to warn students of the dangers involved in such activities.”
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