Elite Cambridge University drinking societies under siege as their darkest secrets are revealed

From bikini-clad female students wrestling in pools of jelly to binge-drinking, extreme-eating contests and regurgitating live goldfish, the exploits of Cambridge University ’s drinking societies have long provoked tabloid headlines.

Now the future of these groups is under review after a Facebook page dedicated to shutting them down posted hundreds of accounts of inappropriate behaviour allegedly perpetrated by drinking society members, including sexual misconduct, bullying and classism.

The anonymous claims on Grudgebridge include members of a male drinking society sexually harassing “attractive fresher girls” after confiscating their keys and phones; a male member of a society saying female students would “be going home in wheelchairs” after an event; and a drinking society member trying to ban someone from entering a bar because they went to a state school.

In response to the allegations, Cambridge University Student Union (CUSU) is to draw up a code of conduct for drinking societies with members and student sexual harassment campaigners, Cambridge for Consent, which should be in place by the end of term.

The CUSU student president, Daisy Eyre, said the union’s governing body was also expected to vote on whether to back the campaign for the end of drinking societies.

“Personally, I think [drinking societies] are incredibly problematic and disruptive. If you go out to the clubs on a Friday night you will see multiple people wearing drinking society blazers and shirts, making it very clear that they are members of these societies and you are not. And [freshers] can feel really left out if they’re not chosen. And the politics of who is in drinking societies is implicitly and sometimes explicitly homophobic, racist and classist,” said Eyre.