Binge drinking among undergraduate university students has become a sport - and a competitive one.
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That's according to ANU arts/law student Tess Masters, who says drinking on campus is highly visible and almost expected.
"Students jokingly calling each other ‘alcoholics’, and drinking until they yak or pass out," she said.
"They will compare bruises on their legs from drunken escapades the night before, bragging that they don’t remember how they got it. It’s a big social issue."
While she acknowledges drinking is not inherently bad, she said students' relationship with it needed to change.
A new campaign - Reduce Risky Drinking - aimed at changing perceptions about student drinking on university campuses and reducing rates of binge drinking is being launched in Canberra today.
The campaign is a collaboration between the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the University of Canberra and the Australian National University, which aims to tackle the misconceptions that can cause students to increase their drinking once they reach university.
The foundation's chief executive Michael Thorn said alcohol use at universities led to unacceptable and antisocial behaviour on campus like hazing and sexual assault and harassment.
A survey of first year students undertaken by the foundation found the vast majority - 80 per cent - of students who drink do so to get drunk, with almost a quarter of these doing so once a week or more.
But the majority respondents (63.6 per cent) felt comfortable with how much alcohol they consume.
When asked to select what they had done after drinking in the past twelve months, the majority (83-per-cent) of respondents said they had vomited, 41 per cent missed school or work, and one third had passed out.
Nearly one fifth had been in a verbal or physical argument and 11-per-cent reported they had driven a car after drinking alcohol.
But the survey also found students believed their peers were drinking a lot more than they actually were.
The survey found nearly all respondents believe the majority of students in their year at university drink alcohol to get drunk.
Mr Thorn said these significant mis-perceptions about alcohol behaviour were due to the highly-visible actions of those who are drinking to excess.
“Behaviour associated with binge-drinking is often highly visible, giving students the impression that
this sort of behaviour is ‘normal’ at uni," he said.
"Less noticeable are the actions of students who aren’t bingedrinking, and so undergraduate students tend to consume alcohol at much higher levels, in line with their perception of ‘normal’ university behaviour."
Ms Masters said drinking culture on campus reinforced "lad culture" and sexist attitudes that go along with it.
"Masculinity, misogyny and alcoholism are intricately linked. That’s absolutely not to say that alcohol causes sexism because that is not the case, but drinking culture reinforces lad culture and the sexist attitudes that go along with that," she said.
"Men in these groups will use their drinking as an excuse for their behaviour and actions - but being drunk never justifies sexism and violence.
"A lot needs to change. We need better education programs on the risks of drinking, and information on how to drink safely. We need better support services for people who experience alcoholism and substance abuse."
"Hazing is a big problem in residential halls across the country. Excessive drinking culture contributes to and informs harmful hazing cultures.
"We should call hazing what it is - often harmful cultures and traditions that include bullying and assault - and not use drinking as an excuse or justification. All students have a right to be safe on their campus and in their homes."
