Exercise or lose grades

That’s what students at a Christian university, Oral Roberts university, in Oklahoma have been told.

Staff there can monitor students heart rates and see how many steps they have taken due to the fact the students are required to wear a Fitbit bracelet allowing the university to monitor aerobic points.

Students are required to take at least 10,000 steps a day and complete two and a half hours of exercise a week in which their heartbeat has to rise to between 60 and 80% of its maximum capacity.

The university President William Wilson says it is the first university in the world to offer this unique approach to a fitness programme.

Physical exercise whether through an Olympic sport or dodge ball in the gym has always been mandatory at many American universities and has become more intense of late as America also tries to tackle its obesity crisis.

First year students  were said to suffer the Freshman 15 – putting on 15lbs in the first year due to a surfeit of alcohol and junk food.

The Oral Roberts university has always emphasised nurturing bodies as well as minds (reminds me of the Victorian muscular christianity philosophy).

Before Fitbit students were required to complete a logbook of their exercise. No chance to fiddle the books now!