I was stunned when I saw the heading on yesterday’s My Paper which was on NUS Sex Survey on the active sex lives of NUS students. What in the world?! I have no idea where and when on earth was the NUS sex survey conducted! And who conducted it? Seriously, I felt that this headline just served to make people jump into the bandwagon full of assumptions and unsupported conclusions. Asiaone even reported on this too!
Well eventually or just like 10 mins ago, my questions were addressed with a mere search on Google on the term ‘NUS Sex Survey’. It was conducted by our school’s magazine, the Ridge (which i often read) and I had no idea of their findings (apparently i might have missed out on that issue where they revealed such findings). Then there’s the issue of whether how credible the survey results are, how reliable and valid their measures are etc. etc.. (typical Psychology student who took a stats module with Dr. Why would be able to raise this questions, shame on you if you can’t! :P)
You can see for yourself the original survey findings over here.
I think I am not the only one who was skeptical of the finding. There are a couple of blogs which mention how the sample size is not representative of the entire NUS student population of about… mmm… 23,000? Like what sakuranotoki mentioned, that the survey had a majority of Arts students (Ahem.. my fellow faculty mates) as respondents. And judging from the proportion of the survey respondents from the respective faculties, i don’t think it’s representative at all.
Ok, enough of the survey that was definitely not conducted with good knowledge and perhaps, expertise in Statistics.
Then again, the general idea that people have is that it’s 64%, what’s the big deal? Just like how Kawaii put it to be, “64%? C’mon… No big deal…” There’s that idea that things happen behind closed doors and the overreaction at the news is just uncalled for. But is our society really ready to except the fact that its youth may be hinted to be… ‘horny’ or even ‘promiscuous’ (man.. Nelly Furtado’s song is ringing in my head now..)?
Aldrich does bring in the fact that, there are actually such happenings that are taking place or have taken place even in other institutions (no comments as to whether HCJC or CJC have the honours of being the representatives of ‘other institutions’).. so why make a big fuss because of what – that they are NUS students?
This survey has got a lot of people talking, well at least at the VR-Forums and well, there’s more of poking fun at the survey rather than being critical of us, undergraduates (which would have been uncalled for.. i think). One thing I feel that is missing in emphasis is that majority of the undergraduates are at or above the age of 18 and well, I think it’s a personal choice that they have to make regarding the issue about sex.
Frankly, please give them (the uni students) the credit for being able to make their own decisions. Over in other western countries, by the age of 16 to 18, their youth are fully independent, self sufficient and able to make their choices. Likewise, so can we. Please stop thinking that Singaporean students lack the ability to decide properly for themselves because our education system has created us to be highly competent and knowledgeable members of society (or so I think) or at least, I think that the sex education that I underwent during secondary school was good enough to educate me on the dangers of having unprotected sex etc etc..
On a final note, I think that everyone shouldn’t take the survey as seriously as they have or how the media has devoted such media limelight on it. Because there are many doubts that are cast on how the survey was being conducted. The figures might not be even accurate to begin with. So, don’t worry yourself, namely all those who are going to cause an uproar over this issue of a percentage of 64%.. well, just be thankful at least it’s not 69% or that you caught 69 in action with your own eyes.. (oh gosh.. how corny..)
Anyway, it’s always good to look on a well, brighter side of things? Let’s just take the report as a ‘free publicity stint’ for NUS, now that the A levels are out, and the NUS Open House is coming up and that the 4 local universities are vying to attract as many applicants as possible.. I think the survey has not only increased the public’s awareness of the university but might have even boosted our popularity with people saying that they wanna come or should have come to NUS to do their studies. Well, just look at what Markie said!
Don’t lose sleep over these figures. This matter will soon be blown over by perhaps another similar-to-Edison Chen sex saga or perhaps another survey that might just arise from the corners of Singapore – perhaps the NTU sex survey? the SMU sex survey? or even the SIM sex survey.. Check out your daily newspaper for the next shocking headline to come! 😛
