'Sober students' threat to bars

The students' union at Anglia Ruskin University is closing some of its bars due to a drop in customers.

The union said more mature and part-time students had resulted in a decline in the number of drinkers using the bars and a drop in profits.

The union is proposing closing the Chelmsford campus bar and only opening the one in Cambridge in the evenings.

A spokesman said cheap supermarket alcohol and students going out less had also contributed to falling profits.

Drinking habits

He said: "Our customers come out later in the evening after drinking cheap alcohol from supermarkets; they also go out less often that they did even five years ago."

The union estimates that over the next three years it could lose a sum of about £200,000 based on sales from the previous three years and the anticipated downturn.

As well as blaming students' drinking habits it said building work planned at the Anglia Ruskin Cambridge campus would also mean a loss of revenue during the work.

It said it would replace the bars with student activity centres and lounges as well as a better gym in Cambridge.

A campaign has started on various social networking internet sites to stop the planned closures.

The students' union said its members would be able to have their say at meetings in Chelmsford and Cambridge over the next week.

According to the union 11 universities across the UK have closed some or all of their bars because of financial difficulties.

Source: BBC