Number of students having sex has tripled

University students in Hong Kong are becoming more sexually liberated with more than a third saying they have had premarital sex and nearly 40 per cent claiming to have had more than one partner.

The survey of students in 10 tertiary institutions shows a tripling of the proportion of sexually active undergraduates from only 10.6 per cent a decade ago to 34.4 per cent today. However, the rate is still about half that of the United States, based on similar studies there.

The survey of 11,228 students - 58 per cent of them women - was conducted by the Hong Kong Tertiary Institutions Health Care Working Group.

Dr Chan Kit-chi, chairwoman of the working group, attributed the significant rise to the changes in social values. Another factor was the abundant flow of information about sex today through outlets such as the Internet.

Dr Chan, also the director of the University of Hong Kong health service, said although students were more sexually active, many remained ignorant about sex and engaged in high-risk activities.

The 10 institutions surveyed were the Chinese University, City University, Baptist University, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, Polytechnic University, Shue Yan College, the University of Science and Technology, Lingnan University and the University of Hong Kong.