Fewer than half of students at Cambridge University are heterosexual... with a third identifying as bisexual, survey suggests
Less than half of students at Cambridge University now identify as heterosexual, a survey has found.
Around 600 undergraduates took part in the anonymous online poll for student newspaper Varsity last month.
Of those, just 49.7 per cent said they were heterosexual, against 11.9 per cent who said they were homosexual and around a third, 29.7 per cent, who said they were bisexual.
The remainder were more creative with their answers, with one claiming their sexuality was ‘rower’.
The results show a large rise in the number of homosexual or bisexual students compared to six years ago, when a similar survey by online student newspaper The Tab found 19 per cent of students at Cambridge were gay or bisexual.
The findings of the Varsity poll also tally with a survey by Oxford University’s student paper Cherwell, which found 49 per cent of students identified as heterosexual and 33 per cent said they were bisexual.
Similarly, a YouGov study said half of young people did not consider themselves to be exclusively heterosexual.
The 2015 poll, which had a much bigger survey sample, asked participants to place themselves on the Kinsey scale which plots individuals based on the sexuality they identify with.
Pieter Garicano, editor of Cherwell, told Varsity: ‘It’s fascinating to see the resemblance in outcomes between Oxford and Cambridge.
'One wonders whether this is due to the similarities in student populations or because Varsity and Cherwell draw similar types of readership.’