@Theimpossiblegirl
Drugs are available everywhere. Yes, they may be more obviously prevalent in a large city but they are a part of every university/town. The lad above DD hotboxes his bathroom and is mostly stoned. Dd prefers to drink. It's university life, we can prepare them as much as possible but they're young adults and will probably party at uni in some way or another. I'd be more concerned if she didn't go out at all.
Yes, but different Universities have different approaches to anti-social behaviour by some students.
Some say, have security and a clear curfew, as in no noise after midnight. According to a friend, Leeds, which seems to have lost some of its reputation as a party University, is good at this. Oxbridge even has porters. My friend who managed student accommodation in Bournemouth said that as it was private, they were anxious to preserve the value of their property as well as keeping students safe. Her security would intervene if there were disruptive parties, or obvious signs of drug activity, and the University would back them up.
Much of Bristol's student accommodation is in Stoke Bishop, essentially a student village some way from the centre. Flats have as many as 12 residents, so a good chance of one or two who live a party lifestyle. Don't forget these are often 18 year olds away from home for the first time. Security are apparently instructed to respond only to student complaints, rather than hear, see or smell anything themselves. Unfortunately if a student does complain, say about a late night party and drugs are then found, unless someone owns up all the occupants of the flat could be found liable. A disaster for law and medical students who might find their fitness to practice compromised.
So no choice but to put up with it, and to somehow struggle through the academic year and 9.00am starts with little sleep. In DDs experience, the peer pressure was huge. Looking back it was straight bullying. Students should have a choice of not taking drugs, without being ostracised. When she did move, and it was an emergency move after a quite shocking incident, there were drugs in her new flat. Of course there were. However this time round the culture of the flat was dominated by a pretty straightforward group, and the main druggie largely stayed in her hotbox room with her dealer boyfriend, who had actually been expelled from his halls and from the University for trying to sell drugs to an off duty security guard.
Bristol's problems are about the isolation of the student accommodation and about the University's approach to management. They, like many on this board and presumably many students, probably don't think drugs matter. However some will find this environment difficult especially if they are not particularly into drugs and perhaps not that into clubbing, it is worth thinking about. DDs experience of Imperial College last year was very different. They do not seem to have anything like the same drug culture. Ditto DS' experience at LSE.
I also agree with Watchingblueplanet. about the adhominen attacks. OP asked for experiences. Blueplanet and my DC clearly have had different experiences than many, but they are still valid experiences. It appears that Tizerorfizz is determined to take up the mantel of a poster called BubblesBuddy who used to be robust in her belief that Bristol was wonderful and not to be criticised. I assume OP posted because she was genuinely interested in different views.
At the end of her first year DD suggested that Bristol would be a great University, if only they could get a handle on the drugs.