IN university, late nights are usually spent studying. But another kind of late-night behaviour has got students at Newnham College in the United Kingdom worried.

All 400 undergraduates of the college, part of Cambridge University, were recently sent an e-mail by the university asking them to be "discreet in your activities", reported the Daily Mail.

The e-mail, which was sent out on Tuesday by Miss Lizzy Cole, president of the college's junior common room, went like this: "This is just a very quick thank you to everyone for being considerate of your neighbours.

"However, I'd just like to politely remind everyone that Newnham corridors funnel sound and walls are very thin in some buildings.

"Therefore, please remember to be discreet in your activities, especially during late/early hours of the day."

Miss Cole, 19, told the Daily Mail she sent the e-mail out after receiving 30 complaints about noise in student halls.

The undergraduates were horrified to think that their neighbours might have heard their bedroom activities.

A second-year student, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Daily Mail: "When I read the e-mail, I cringed. I thought it must refer to me!"

Another undergraduate said: "It's just so embarrassing to think that people have been listening in. I was blushing when I got the e-mail.

"You try to keep it down, but it's easy to forget the walls are so thin if you get a bit carried away."

Earplugs?

"This sort of thing must happen at every university in the country. Only in Cambridge would your fellow students complain. They'll be handing out earplugs next."

Miss Cole, a second-year student in Natural Sciences, also added in her e-mail that male visitors were allowed to stay for up to two nights at the college but had to sign up for a guest room for longer stays.

A Natural Sciences student from another college told The Tab, the Newnham College student newspaper, of his experiences of staying a night at the college.

He said: "I'm not surprised (at the e-mail). That place is a nightmare to escape from when drunk.

"And as for the walls, I thought I was going to break them at one point."

Newnham College, whose alumni include writers Sylvia Plath, Iris Murdoch, Germaine Greer and Joan Bakewell, was established as the second female college at Cambridge in 1871.

The college hit the news in the UK last February after several students from its drinking society were photographed in sexual poses during a drunken initiation ceremony. Miss Cole said on Thursday that some students had misinterpreted the e-mail.

She said: "The complaints I received from people over the last month or so were mainly about general noise coming from the college. It was things like shouting in the corridors and music being played late at night and in the early hours."

But she added that the college had "a feminist reputation", and was also known as the "(promiscuous) college of Cambridge".

She said: "I think that is a bit unfair. But it's always going to be that way with an all-female college.

"We're not all extreme feminists or (promiscuous) - we're just normal women trying to enjoy Cambridge life."

This article was first published in The New Paper.