THAT WAS the week that was Freshers. The week when a huge swathe of Britain’s new students got stuck into the grand traditions of the university life they’ll be leading for the next three years – drink, more drink and lots of pizza.

Now, possibly for the first time, we have an accurate picture of just what goes on in the first week of the new university year.

According to online takeaway site, just-eat.co.uk, which has conducted a survey of student eating habits, the UK’s first years chomped their way through a staggering five million slices of pizza, an average of 12 per student during Freshers’ Week.

Each student troughed an average of two kebabs – 840,000 were eaten in the last seven days.

Male students are reported to have glugged an average of six pints of beer a night throughout Fresher’s Week meaning a grand total of 1,258,881 pints were drunk in university towns and cities last week alone.

Female students are fonder of spirits – the average female fresher downed 34 measures last week, meaning UK student women drank 7,133,659 measures. On top of that it’s estimated an average of 14 shots per person were consumed in the past seven days – that’s more than five million slammers.

All this must have caused more than a few headaches. Students claimed to have taken an average of 10 paracetamol tablets last week to cope with their hangovers, adding up to an incredible 262,267 packs of tablets during the course of the week.

But students don’t just consume food and booze – they’re big hirers of fancy dress, too. Three out of four students surveyed said they’d dressed up last week – the average number of costumes per student was four. That adds up to more than a million outfits.

Ash Ali, marketing director at just-eat.co.uk, said: “We saw a huge increase in orders when freshers arrived on campus.”

At Bournemouth University, freshers have been invited to join in a number of events, from the traditional Freshers’ Ball to supermarket trips and town tours.

There’s been a Halls Welcome Party, a Lock and Key Party (old school uniform required), an Oktoberfest, a Surf Club beach party, Rock and Roll bingo, the Lollipop Official Launch Party, a Pirates party, Student Welcome Party...

It all looks like party overload but, says Bournemouth University spokesman Charles Elder said: “It’s actually an important part of their university life, getting them to mix, make new friends and not feel left out.”

He says that freshers’ weeks also help students to find their way around town, register with local doctors and to try and find a “swine flu buddy”: “Someone who can bring them medicine and things they need if they go down with an illness.”

As lectures start in earnest on Monday, Freshers’ Week will soon become a distant memory.

But, it appears, there will always be the takeaway pizza to keep them going.