reshers' Week is just plain weird. You suddenly find yourself attached to a group of people you were randomly allocated as neighbours, while any potential friends seem to be hidden behind the guise of the same, superficial Freshers' Week conversation; "where are you from, where are you living and what do you study?" The Union club nights are equally disappointing. Freshers stand awkwardly swaying to music they would never be seen dead listening to in front of their old school friends. Likewise, the (what seems to be obligatory) experience of cider and black and a shot for good measure ensues, closely followed by the regrettable outcome - that is, messy sex. Freshers' Week was certainly a "once and never again" moment for me, yet I cannot help but question why more and more older students keep going back?

I first came across the phenomenon of older students attending Freshers' Week events way back in my second year at university. My flatmate and I had spent the evening at The Hive, and it wasn’t until we were walking past Potterrow on our way back to Marchmont that we realised Freshers’ Week was in full flow. We were stopped by a first year student, who had had a little bit too much to drink and subsequently lost his flatmates and had no idea how to get back to Pollock Halls. Being a geographically savvy second year, I promptly gave him directions, to which he replied with the standard Freshers’ Week questions. No sooner had "what do you study?" slurred from his lips when two other male students approached us. It turns out they were second years.

Impressed that we weren’t the only non-freshers outside Potterrow, my flatmate and I exclaimed with enthusiasm that we were also second years. One of the guys began to stalk off to talk to another group of people, while his friend stuck around. It turns out that they had been to Potterrow that night and were there to meet freshers. In other words, they were out to "fresher fish".

Fresher fishing is a relatively new trend. The online Urban Dictionary defines fresher fishing as "an activity engaged in by older students during freshers' week, where they prey on freshers, seeking sexual satisfaction". It is also known as ‘sharking’ or a ‘fresher fuck’, which suggests the darker side of older students preying on "vulnerable, very drunk freshers". When I asked current freshers whether they had ever come across fresher fishing, most of them have never heard about it. I also was not
"in-the-know" until I had progressed from a first year victim to a potential predator.

We all know that during Freshers' Week, freshers are outside their comfort zone. Not only are they in a strange environment with people they have only just met, but for the majority of first year students this is the first time they are drinking alcohol, clubbing and living alone. So naturally, freshers are keen to impress their peers, make friends and have a good time. It is this mixture of inexperience and letting your hair down that fresher fishing sharks latch onto. One fourth year Edinburgh student who has dabbled in fresher fishing believes that alcohol consumption makes some first year students an easy target. He explains, "Freshers' Week is seven days where everyone is really drunk so that is seven opportunities to pull."

Not only are freshers an easy target because of their desire to impress, the exorbitant amount of alcohol consumed and the myth that Freshers’ Week and sex go hand in hand, but it is the power older students hold over their inexperienced fresher counterparts. A first year mathematics student enthusiastically boasted that he managed to get into a second year house party one night during Freshers' Week. It seems that older students have a certain kudos that freshers cannot help but admire.

A third year Freshers’ Week volunteer told The Student that older students can be seen at Freshers' Week events exercising their power over first years and basking in the glory of it. He explained that older students "like to be a big fish in a small pond.

You can see the members of the sports teams wearing their kits to show freshers that they are a big deal. For every other day of the week they just look like normal students but in Freshers' Week they dress differently and act like they are a cut above the rest."

In fact, on the Friday of Freshers' Week, a group of tie-and-kilt-wearing older students were escorted out of Teviot and banned from entering Potterrow after Union staff overheard their intentions to go fresher fishing and felt that their level of inebriation was unacceptable.

Matthew McPherson, Welfare Convenor for Edinburgh University’s Student Union (EUSA), stated, "unlike a bar or club in town, our Students' Association has an important duty of care towards our service users, and it's one that it takes incredibly seriously."

He continued that although he had not received any reports of fresher fishing this year, "The Students’ Association and University work in partnership to promote advice and support to any students who feel they are suffering from abuse. Fresher fishing is not a common issue that students come forward to EUSA about. But that does not mean we are not proactive in promoting a safe and positive learning and social environment."

One female Edinburgh student who has experienced an older student attempting to fresher fish her revealed: "I seemed to see this guy at every freshers' event I went to and every night there was the standard eye-sexing across the bar, until at the Freshers' Ball Sebastian finally came and approached me. He turned out to be a second year trying his luck at any and every freshers' event. When he offered to walk me home, even through my drunken haze, I knew that the only thing getting inside me that night was the mushroom risotto in my cupboard."

Despite her experience of being the victim of fresher fishing, she believes that condemning "fresher fishing as heinously immoral is a bit patronising to the fresher girls, who - although perhaps slightly more vulnerable at the beginning of university - still have their own minds."

McPherson outlines EUSA’s advice on how freshers can keep safe while they settle in at Edinburgh University. He recommends that students should "organise beforehand who you are going out and coming home with, making sure that you stick with your friends and avoid leaving a club alone", as well as drinking responsibly by "breaking alcoholic drinks with a glass of water - available for free from any of our bars which you don’t have to queue for - and ensuring your drink is never left unattended."

He also recommended that students use EUSA's C-card scheme, which "allows students to access free contraception and sexual health advice from hundreds of outlets across the country, safely, anonymously and without question or judgment. We have a particular focus on safe sex during Freshers' Week, including dishing out free condoms while students are queuing to get into the Union club nights."

Safe sex is much more than avoiding sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy though. It is also about making sure you keep emotionally healthy and make the right choices for you when it comes to sex. So don’t fall for the bait of an older student who may just be out for a 'fresher fuck', unless you are sure that you are making an informed choice and not just falling for the illusion of Freshers' Week.