5

Conclusions and Recommendations 

It is helpful in summarising the findings of this project to revisit the

literature which was reviewed in the introduction.  Viewed against the

background of this literature review, it can be concluded that over the past

three years most Irish third level colleges have participated actively in the

college alcohol policy  initiative. The policies which have been devised and,

in  most cases, formally ratified within individual colleges reflect health

promotional principles about the importance of  settings based 

strategies, and the process whereby this was done invariably involved the

creation of a network of student services staff and student union officers in

these colleges.  From a health promotional perspective, what is crucial is

that colleges demonstrated a willingness to move away from individually 

oriented strategies, particularly those concerned with educational or

awareness raising approaches to problem prevention, in favour of

environmental approaches which  might  not  have been previously

contemplated.  

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