Spotlight on: student health and beauty

Student spending on healthcare products is partly driven by students' unions and university welfare teams. These bodies have a responsibility to inform students on health issues - they invest heavily in promoting practices such as safe sex, nutrition and bodycare. Their marketing work on campuses is among the most visible, and as a result student awareness is high.

Being a student is different today than it was ten or even five years ago. Among the many changes that have impacted on student lifestyles is the withdrawal of free prescriptions. Nowadays students rarely bother visiting a doctor unless they feel especially unwell - they prefer to take advice from a pharmacist and buy over-the-counter.

There has also been a marked rise in sales of vitamins and energy supplements, as students seek to counter-balance the effects of heavy nights out and intense study. Products like Pro Plus have won a permanent place in the bathroom cabinet: "Pro Plus is as essential a part of the modern student's toolkit as the mobile phone," said The Guardian recently.

Meanwhile cosmetics retailers and those selling grooming products have benefited from the eventual death of the 'great unwashed' myth. It may have once been cool to be unclean, but today's fresher is full of fragrance. It's all about pulling power according to Daniel Goldup, who writes for York University's student paper. Speaking about male students, Daniel says: "There is more pressure these days. Standards have been pushed up by the, letÕs call it ÔfeminisationÕ, of male culture through the likes of David Beckham, Jude Law and various boy bands. No longer is the ideal of male beauty the rugged look of the 1980s. For now at least it is the pretty-boy, well shaven and immaculately groomed look that is dragging girls wilfully between crisp Habitat sheets!"

And it may come as a surprise to those who remember students as disorganised characters, but today's students often arrive at university with a medical kit full of aspirins, cold remedies, creams and potions - because university handbooks encourage students to come prepared. Campuses are notorious harbingers of illness, especially in the first term when thousands of young people from all across the country come together.

This year the Department of Health will spend £2 million on a safe sex campaign pitched at students and young people. Boots the Chemist have invested in the student market with the large-scale sponsorship of university facilities, such as the Boots Library at Nottingham Trent University. Meanwhile brands such as Nivea, Clinique and Brylcreem have recognised students make up a massive part of their customer base and targeted their marketing accordingly. From condoms and sanitary products to aspirins, cold remedies, hair sprays and skin lotions, students have proved a key market for the health and beauty sector.