Student initiation ceremonies are stopped whenever possible on the Universities of Medway campus.

Footage has emerged showing students at Gloucester University being lined up and forced to drink alcohol while wearing plastic bags on their heads and vomiting.

The video, handed to the BBC, showed the leader of the group dressed as a Nazi soldier, leading them down a residential street unsighted and hand in hand.

But Dan Palmer, director of the Universities of Medway Students' Association, said while initiations take place, they are not encouraged and are prevented whenever possible on the Chatham Maritime campus, which is home to students from the University of Kent, University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University.

He said:" I think that the reality is that initiations do happen at universities and it's something different sports teams get involved with.

"I think the levels of that initiation differ wherever you go but it's something that we as an organisation discredit and we try to stop wherever possible."

For more from the interview with Dan Palmer, director of UMSA, see the video to the right.

• For more on this story from students at the University of Kent visit www.kentishgazette.co.uk