UNIVERSITY SPORTS teams across the country were under scrutiny last week after the BBC released controversial footage exposing the practice of dangerous and humiliating initiation ceremonies.

UNIVERSITY SPORTS teams across the country were under scrutiny last week after the BBC released controversial footage exposing the practice of dangerous and humiliating initiation ceremonies.

The minute-long clip, recorded in secret by a broadcast journalism student at the University of Gloucestershire, shows a group of students wearing plastic bags over their heads as they are led through the streets and encouraged to drink to the point of vomiting by a man dressed in what appears to be a Nazi uniform.

The university has since launched a formal investigation into the incident, with representatives stressing that “initiation events that include intimidating or bullying behaviour will not be tolerated.”

The National Union of Students (NUS) has responded sternly to the exposure, with calls for a blanket ban on the practice known as ‘hazing’ now emerging.

NUS president, Wes Streeting, said, “We are totally opposed to student initiations. They put students at serious risk and exclude students who don’t want to take part in that binge-drinking culture.”

Meanwhile, NUS Scotland’s president Gurjit Singh spoke of ‘a UK-wide NUS policy against the practice’.

Despite apparently widespread acknowledgement among students that initiation ceremonies of an extreme nature do occur, some have raised concerns that fears of humiliation, peer pressure and exclusion deter some students from taking part in university sports.

One third year student at the University of Edinburgh, who did not wish to be named, told Student:

“I think people see initiations as too big a part of tradition for universities to be able to stamp them out completely. It’s quite often thought of as a way of building team spirit and just getting to know other people. It’s true that they do sometimes go too far and I don’t see why anyone should have to drink themselves stupid or get naked just to be accepted.

“That said”, she added, “I think as long as people aren’t forced into initiations, the people that do take part should probably know what to expect.”

Student previously ran an article detailing incidences of initiation rituals at the University of Edinburgh. Accounts emerged of freshers being coerced into dangerously excessive drinking, streaking through the Meadows and setting their pubic hair alight in a bizarre act known as ‘The Flaming Mangina’. These reports prompted a university GP to warn students of the injuries and illnesses associated with such behaviour.