Brit varsity VC defends 'female students perk' article

London, Sep 24 (ANI): Brit university vice-chancellor Terence Kealey, who is at the centre of a row over an article about female students being a "perk" to be enjoyed by male academics, has defended his comments.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Kealey was criticised for making the suggestion, and the article has also prompted claims that the comments displayed a "lack of respect" for women.

But Kealey, from Buckingham University, insisted that the light-hearted article, which was written for Times Higher Education magazine to highlight the seven deadly sins of academia, was "highly moral".

"It says that sex between middle-aged academics and young undergraduates is wrong," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"It also says that academics should enjoy the company of their students. That too is unexceptionable.

"The Times Higher readership is composed mainly of academics who would be expected to appreciate articles written at more than one level.

"The crudeness of some of the examples was to underpin the inappropriateness of transgressional sex and that is a conventional literary device.

"Sex between staff and students is not funny and is not a legitimate source of humour but it is legitimate to use humour to illuminate the ways that people finesse the dissonance between what is publicly acceptable and what is sometimes privately desired," he added. (ANI)