'Exam boost' drugs that are on sale to students for just £2

‘Exam boost’ drugs that are said to improve cognitive ability are on sale to students for just £2, report shows

  • Students are turning to study drugs en-masse to get ahead at university
  • Students told The Times they were able to get the drugs easily for £2 a pill
  • A survey said 19 per cent of student had admitted to using cognition enhancers

Study drugs are now rife among university students as they try to boost exam performance.

The pills can be bought for around £2 each from internet retailers based abroad, an investigation has found.

The ‘smart drugs’, which were developed to treat medical conditions, are available only by prescription in the UK. However they have become popular because research shows they can enhance cognitive ability.

Students from Oxford, Edinburgh, Nottingham and the London School of Economics told The Times they were able to obtain the drugs easily.

Students from Oxford, Edinburgh, Nottingham and the London School of Economics told The Times they were able to obtain the drugs easily

Sir Anthony Seldon, a former vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said universities should ban unauthorised prescription medicines. He added: ‘It’s unfair, it gives an advantage. It’s dangerous, we don’t know the long-term effects. It puts pressure on students, you become a mug if you are not doing it.’

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said it was studying the issue and would put out new guidance.

The Office for Students said the situation was ‘worrying’.

An online survey of students from 54 British universities published last year showed 19 per cent of students had used cognition enhancers.

Online pharmacies, including those abroad, are required to confirm with a GP that a prescription is clinically appropriate.

However, Dr Anders Sandberg, 49, a philosopher at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, said that he obtained a drug online for research with no checks.

An online survey of students from 54 British universities published last year showed 19 per cent of students had used cognition enhancers

He buys it from a European online store, claiming to have a prescription, which is not examined.

Barbara Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge University, said that she had been approached by students after giving lectures about cognition enhancers.

She told the Times: ‘Someone comes up and says ‘I don’t want to take these drugs but other people are taking them and I feel I will be disadvantaged’.

‘They see people passing them round the library. Sometimes they get them on the internet, which is a very unsafe way to get a prescription-only medicine. It’s like Russian roulette.’

David Taylor, professor of psychopharmacology at King’s College London, said: ‘You are taking a drug that affects the function of your brain without any medical supervision.’

No university in Britain has explicitly banned cognition enhancers although Edinburgh said that the consumption and sale of such drugs breached its code of student conduct, which forbids the use of unfair means in assessments.

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