University health service also seeks data on smoking, alcohol consumption and family medical history but ignores Sars Students at the University of Hong Kong have slammed an 'outrageous' questionnaire that asks them highly personal questions about their HIV status and sex life. In addition to questions of a sexual nature, it requires all students entering the university to reveal details of their family medical and mental history, alcohol consumption and whether they have ever had cancer or 'ear trouble'. There are also questions relating to smoking and the cause of death of their parents or siblings. 'It's outrageous,' said a 30-year-old female postgraduate student at HKU. 'The questions are very personal.' The student, who formerly worked as a lawyer in London and is now enrolled on the master's programme at the university's Journalism and Media Studies Centre, said that in other countries universities would not be allowed to ask for such information. 'In the UK there are strong privacy laws governing data collection. You're supposed to give your consent before giving this level of personal information. But we're not being asked for consent, we're being forced to do it,' she said. Kira Rimrott, a Canadian who started a master's programme this week, said she was shocked at content of the questionnaire and felt pressured into disclosing personal details. She had not had to fill in a questionnaire for her current job or as a student at the University of Toronto. 'It's inappropriate and very intrusive,' she said and queried why Sars was not mentioned. Hubert Tang Ho-chun, 19, a first-year bio-technology student, said he had completed the form but thought the level of intrusion was unnecessary: 'There were some questions I just didn't want to answer.' A 19-year-old female freshman in the department of geography said the questionnaire was 'abrupt' and that she had written 'inappropriate' on the sections of the form relating to her sex life. The 'female only' section also caused shock. Ms Rimrott said: 'Women are asked how many times they have been pregnant, whether there were any complications, what kind of contraception, if any, they were using, and the date of the student's last cervical smear. Why is there no section 'men only'?' However, Raymond Mak Ka-chun, president of the HKU students' union, said the questionnaire was acceptable if the data collected was kept confidential, although he added that asking women about contraception was controversial. A spokesman for HKU's health service said the university needed the information to construct accurate patient profiles and improve medical care, but she said that in the light of recent criticisms the wording of the questionnaire would be modified. 'It's very strange. We didn't really notice the wording about university entrance requirements. The form must have been drawn up a couple of decades ago,' she said.