Brains and beauty

Students are competing to be crowned 'Miss University London'. Anthea Lipsett reports

Entrants include students from University College London and King's College London. Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

Far from a day in the library, female students have been having their waists and chests measured in competition for the title of "Miss University London".

Reports suggest that about 400 students flocked to the capital to compete, dismissing the disgust of their protesting peers, who labelled the contest "misogynistic and degrading" and called for it to be banned.

Hundreds of undergraduates apparently aspire to win the student beauty contest.

Demonstrators picketed West End nightclubs this week during heats for the London School of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, Queen Mary College and Regent's College.

There are also entrants from University College London and King's College London, suggesting that even the most serious of students are far from put off. Should they be?

University women's officers understandably are outraged. Soas's, Elly James, likens the competition to a "cattle market" with women having to have their waists and chests measured.

But Christian Emile, founder of 121 Entertainment, the company behind the contest, says women find the event "empowering".

Certainly Keelin Gavaghan, the 19-year-old accountancy student crowned Miss LSE, doesn't see anything wrong with it. "We hardly sold our souls," she told the Evening Standard.

A spokesman for LSE said it was up to students what they do in their private lives. Do you agree?