With over 550 students responding, Cherwell can release the results of the 2022 Sex Survey. A look into Cherwell history shows that this publication has never shied away from sex. In 1970, the editor at the time, Peter Stothard, published a poster featuring a naked woman, which some have claimed was a first for British newspapers. Stothard pursued the paper’s new image by publishing a nude photo of Gully Wells, a move that was considered ‘daring’ for the time. Three years later, the paper is said to have become a ‘cause celebre’ in national media when Cherwell published a photo of an editor next to a topless model, resulting in a personal fine for the editor to proctors of the University.
Most notably, going back to 1946, Cherwell suffered a brief hiatus in printing after the paper was banned by the University for distributing a survey on the sex lives of students. Now, in 2022, the survey is back
A Cherwell survey of the sex lives of students at Oxford University has found that the average number of sexual partners students have had is 7.7 in total, with students having had an average of 5.2 partners since coming to university.
Respondents from Exeter reported the most sexual partners with the average number of total sexual partners being 17.8. The rest of the top five of colleges reporting most shags consisted of Brasenose, Trinity, Somerville and Mansfield. Corpus Christi reported the fewest total sexual partners, with the average number being 2.5.
Theology, English and Modern Languages, and Law students are the most sexually active, with Theologians reporting an average of 13.5 sexual partners in total. The least sexually active degree was Computer Science, with their mean reported number of sexual partners since arriving at University being 0.
St John’s is the college with the most LGBTQ+ students, with 68% of respondents identifying as not heterosexual. John’s was closely followed by Worcester and St Annes. The Queen’s College is Oxford’s straightest college, with 75% of respondents identifying as heterosexual. On a University-wide scale, 49.8% of students identify as straight.
The form of contraceptive most frequently used by students is condoms with 41% of respondents opting for this method. 23.58% of students do not use a method of contraceptive.
When asked about their masturbation habits, 13.8% of female students responded that they masturbate 4-5 times a week, while 28% of both male students and nonbinary students responded that they masturbated that amount. 20.7% of female students masturbate ‘rarely’ compared with only 6.8% of male students. Lady Margaret Hall took a clear lead in college masturbation habits, with 56.30% of respondents masturbating more than four times each week.
57.8% of respondents claimed to have broken lockdown restrictions for sexual activity, with 13.1% claiming to have done so at least 20 times. Oxford students said that the pandemic had a negative impact on their satisfaction with their sex lives. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being ‘a lot less sex’ and 5 being ‘a lot more sex’, the mean response was 2.3.
One respondent told Cherwell that Covid has had a disproportionate impact on people’s sex lives: “I went very quickly in HT20 from casual sex to a relationship to long distance with my new partner, and when we were able to be in the same place again my sex drive had really decreased due to the long isolation. Two years later, it’s still something I’m working on, and is just one way in which the pandemic has changed young people’s lives in unpredictable ways.”
46.8% of students have had sex in a ‘public place’, with respondents listing a number of picturesque locations across Oxford. University Parks and various college libraries were among the most common responses, while the Park End cheese floor, Gatwick Express, New College Mound, and Blenheim Palace all received mentions.
Where are you most likely to find someone to bring home? Students say its Plush, bringing in 22.5% of the vote with Park End coming in at second place with 20.7% of the vote. A night at the Bullingdon, however, is unlikely to lead to a hook up, with only 3.1% of respondents lending the club their votes.
Overall, students reported a mean level of satisfaction with their sex lives of 3.3 out of 5.
One student responded that men at Oxford are “cautious and afraid of intimacy” and “overly cautious in initiating sexual interactions”. Another said that it’s easy to have sex and casual relationships at Oxford but added that “the short intense terms (especially with moving-out obligations for many people) make relationships especially difficult”.
Others voiced concerns over the sexual appetite of certain Oxford students with one student saying that “Keble students are crap in bed” and another asking “Why people so kinky and so vanilla? Why do tory boys have to be like that?”. One respondent offered up advice on having sex at Oxford, sharing that “Piers Gav helps, it is amazing to find fellow queer students for hookups and more”.
Here is a closer look at our stats:
Colleges by average number sexual partners since coming to Oxford:
- Brasenose – 9.4
- Trinity – 8.8
- Exeter – 8.5
- Somerville – 8.2
- Mansfield – 7.8
- Merton – 7.7
- St Hugh’s – 6.6
- LMH – 6.36
- St Catherine’s – 5.6
- St Peter’s – 5.3
University average – 5.2
- Keble – 5.1
- St Hilda’s – 5.1
- Christ Church – 5
- Worcester – 5
- Regent’s Park – 4.7
- University – 4.2
- Balliol – 4.1
- St Edmund Hall – 4.1
- Jesus – 3.98
- Lincoln – 3.8
- St Cross – 3.8
- Green Templeton – 3.5
- Pembroke – 3.5
- St John’s – 3.5
- Oriel – 3.4
- Wadham – 3.4
- New – 3.1
- St Anthony’s – 3
- The Queen’s – 3
- St Anne’s – 3
- Hertford – 2.6
- Magdalen – 2.3
- Corpus Christi – 2
- Kellogg – 1.5
Degrees by average number of sexual partners since coming to Oxford:
- English and Modern Languages – 15.5
- Theology – 9.8
- Ancient and Modern History – 8
- Law – 7.5
- Modern languages – 7
- Archaeology and Ancient History – 7
- Medicine – 6.3
- Biochemistry – 6.07
- History and Modern Languages – 6
- History – 5.7
- Classics – 5.43
- Philosophy and Theology – 5.3
- PPE – 5
- History & Politics – 5
- Mathematics and Statistics – 5
- English – 4.6
- Economics – 4.5
- Biology – 4.31
- Music – 4.3
- Psychology – 4
- History and English – 4
- Computer Science and Philosophy – 4
- Chemistry – 3.94
- Geography – 3.8
- E&M – 3.5
- Physics – 3.4
- Physics and Philosophy – 3.4
- CAAH – 3.2
- Arabic and Islamic Studies – 3
- Materials Science – 3
- Human Sciences – .8
- Classics and English – 2.67
- Mathematics – 2.5
- Politics – 2.4
- Public Policy and Sociology – 2
- Philosophy – 2
- History and Economics – 2
- Biomedical Sciences – 2
- Engineering – 1.8
- Earth Sciences – 1.2
- Oriental studies – 1
- Mathematics and Philosophy – 1
- Fine Art – 1
- Archaeology and Anthropology – 1
- Experimental Psychology – 0.6
- Computer Science – 0
