What would Maurice think?

This is somewhat off-topic, but Westmonster's alma mater Peterhouse has made the news in surprising fashion thanks to a study which shows that promiscuity leads to academic failure. The gist of the study is that students at poorly performing Cambridge University colleges had the most sexual partners. More sex = lower grades.

The example cited was Peterhouse, which comes near the bottom of the Tompkins Table but third in the promiscuity list. Peterhouse students had an average of five sexual partners, as against the monks at Christ's, who only had three partners and came near the top of the table.

Things have changed a bit since our day, obviously. Back then, High Tory thinker Maurice Cowling set the tone - austerity, bitchiness and low-level gay petting, an environment which seems to have suited Michael Portillo down to the ground. Is this another example of a great British institution laid low by New Labour, relaxed drinking laws and rubbish A-levels?

The following quote isn't directly relevant, but it made us laugh:

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.