Thursday October 4, 2001
University students are more interested in their academic studies than in sex, a survey published today suggests.
The traditional image of freshers’ week, when thousands of students start their higher education, is of debauchery and booze, with sex being high on the agenda.
As one national student official said last week: “Any time you get that many young people together you are bound to have some coitus.”
But that could all be an urban myth, according to a survey of 600 students from 15 universities carried out by Metz. While more than half of the second years confessed to having sex during freshers’ week, 38% abstained and 12% refused to answer.
In another damning piece of evidence, while 30% of freshers are concerned about missing lectures, only 8% say they slept with someone they should not have in freshers’ week, according to another survey quoted today.
The Metz survey was conducted at a range of universities, including Exeter, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge, York, Edinburgh and UCL.
The worst chat up line, according to a majority of the older students surveyed is “what did you get in your A-levels?”
But the survey mainly concentrated on what students think of their peers. Cornish surfers were voted most sexy male student group, while Liverpudlians came bottom of the list. The least sexy subject for men to study is computing.
The most sexy female students, according to the men in the survey, are drama students. But art students only got 4% less of the vote. Third place went to journalism students, who got a meagre 8% of the vote.