Do students prefer coffee or alcohol?

The BBC published an interesting article recently, which addressed this very question.

What do you think?

Sure, the stereotypical student downs frightening quantities of alcohol, but is this just a stereotype or is it borne out in practice?

According to the recent report, there seems to be a change on the wind…

Surprisingly, it seems that there is a swing towards coffee-drinking, rather than alcohol-binging.

At Aberystwyth University, the student bar was shut as a result of a drop in sales of alcohol.

On the other hand, the campus coffee shop culture is on the up and up.

This is said to reflect a general increase in the number of coffee bars which are springing up at universities of late.

Why would this change be taking place?

An obvious explanation is that the life of a student is changing.

Thanks to increases in tuition fees, students are perhaps taking things a little more seriously than those of the past, certainly in terms of saving pennies and consuming coffee to help their studies.

It has been pointed by other observers that the cafe culture is often conducive to studying and some prefer the more relaxed atmosphere in a cafe to the hushed silence of a library to think and work.

An added bonus, of course, is that coffee is a delicious drink that is enjoyed by much of the population.