Some people may say we students have got life easy, considering that we get paid to go to university. some may say that we lay around drinking coffee, getting drunk and watching TV… and some may suggest that we are largely a waste of space and should go out and get a real job…

First of all, i would like to address the last point, with the fact that we are doing this to get a real job, one better than any of those aforementioned ‘normal’ people could ever dream of. Secondly, yes we do drink and go out, sometimes have to be helped home because we have drunken too much, and sometimes we need coffee to recover. Thirdly, we do not get paid to go to university, the current fees as of 2009 are £3225, and most of us take out a loan of close to £4000 to live, and around half recieve a bursary and grant. thats close to £8000 a year that we have to pay back. And considering that our courses typically last for 3 years, by the end of it we will have £24,000 to repay. The real issue is, that even though we recieve this financial help, most students have to go out and work at the same time they study just to pay for everyday things. It is by no means a simple life.

We pay for the chance to be here, and we have worked hard to get where we are, and we get stressed just like everyone else. Who is to say that because we are studying we cannot drink alcohol and get drunk? Because with the amount of work, both academic and otherwise, that we have to do, we deserve some way of letting our hair down and partying. Of course this does not excuse people doing anti-social things when they are drunk, as these people are a problem indeed. But just because you witness, or read about, a few students who made mistakes while drunk, does not mean we are all the same, and therefore shoud be written off.

At the end of the day University life is as much about the social life, changing yourself for the better, as it is about academic studies, as without socail skills we would all flounder. And to address those of you who think bad things about us students, We are the future of this country, as without us there would be no television, no radio, no shops because there are no managers, no way to complain because of lack of a legal system and so on. So before you condemn us, just think about whether you want to live in the world i just mentioned, most would soon change their views.