Students given ‘Alzheimer’s’ wrist bands to find their way home after freshers nights out
THE UK’S best and brightest are to be treated like glorified lost pets after it was revealed that they will be given ID bands to help them find their way home after nights out.
As thousands of students arrive at university this month, instead of being given the chance to stretch their wings they will be given wristbands baring the name of their halls of residence.
The bands are similar to those worn by Alzheimer’s patients and are designed to help freshers find where they live when heading home after a night out.
Students at Birmingham, Exeter, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool universities have been presented with the navigation aid as they start their degrees.
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The scheme has been accused of infantilising young people as they begin adult life and it has been warned it could encourage binge drinking.
The company behind the brightly-coloured ID tags, Campus Living Villages, said it was “important for us to do whatever we can to further ensure the safety and wellbeing of our own residents”.
Sociology professor Frank Furedi from the University of Kent told the Daily Mail: “It’s perfectly all right for five or six-year-olds but when you treat young men and women like that you’re assuming they are children who need to be subjected to this intense level of paternalism.
Surrey University Students’ Union on how to use BUSES
It’s perfectly all right for five or six-year-olds
“It’s a normal part of growing up – they should really just chill out and leave students to get on with stuff.”
University of Buckingham vice-chancellor Sir Anthony Seldon, called for more to be done to help new students with the “biggest transition” of their lives.
But Sir Anthony also told the Sunday Telegraph: “Freshers’ weeks are often wonderful for students but becoming so drunk that you need a wristband to help you isn’t going to result in everyone having a good time.”
Campus Living Villages website claims a survey shows that 75 per cent of taxi drivers will regularly have passengers who are too drunk to tell them where they live.
Richard Gabelich, of Campus Living Villages said the wristband is designed to give students an “an immediate reference on their wrist for where they are going back to after a night out”.
Last week it was revealed that a video had been created by Surrey University students’ union to show freshers how to use the local buses.
The video includes such valuable gems of information as not using the priority seats and using the “stop” button when you want to get off the bus.
Bus users are also warned to be considerate to their fellow passengers by avoiding lying across several seats at the same time and avoiding talking too loudly.
The instructional video drew a bemused response from one Facebook user who wrote: “I never knew how to get a bus before but now I am enlightened.”
