Promiscuity leads to academic failure, shows Cambridge survey

London, January 26 : A new survey of the sex lives of students at Cambridge University has revealed that promiscuity adversely effects a person's ability to score good grades.

More than 1,000 undergraduates were questioned during the survey, and it was found that those at poorly performing colleges had the most number of sexual partners.

Peterhouse came near the bottom of the 2007 Tompkins Table, which ranks Cambridge colleges in order of their students' academic performance, but third in the promiscuity list.

The survey revealed that its students had an average of five sexual partners as compared to three at Christ's College, which came second in last year's academic table.

It was also found that Christ's had the highest number of virgins, with more than a quarter of respondents saying that they had never had sex.

The surveyors say that students studying certain subjects were more promiscuous than others. Writing about their online poll, published in the student magazine Varsity, they said that pupils studying medicine had the most number of sexual partners, while students of theology had the fewest.

Students of social political science came second, followed by pupils studying history and modern and medieval languages.

The survey also revealed that many students were putting their health at stake by not getting tests for sexually transmitted diseases performed on them.

Forty per cent of the students surveyed admitted having a one-night stand, while over 60 per cent said that they had never been tested for HIV, chlamydia or other sexually transmitted diseases.

"The more sociable a person is the less time they have for their studies. People who have a lot of sexual partners not only spend time initiating relationships with people but they also have to contend with a lot of stress when those relationships break up. This can seriously affect a person's ability to concentrate," the Telegraph quoted Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University, as saying.

Ed Cumming, the Associate Editor of Varsity magazine, said: "Some results confirm long-held stereotypes. Those involved in postgraduate study are less likely to have had sex than their undergraduate counterparts. It suggests that as long as you believe in sex before marriage, you will have lost your virginity by the time you graduate."

ANI