Chinese students are being invited to take part in a beauty contest with a difference to see who has the “most beautiful” sperm.

The contest is being organised by the Human Sperm Bank of Shanghai over the next month and a half where college students in the Chinese mega city are being invited to register to see who produces the best sample.

In order to encourage entrants, the organisers have promised their confidentiality will be respected and once the samples are donated, they will be graded to find not only the “most beautiful”, but also the person producing the highest concentration of sperm and the most viable sperm.

The sperm bank has been regularly posting performance statistics for contributors and last month in June the highest concentration sample was from a sports lover with 282 million sperm per millilitre which is reportedly 19 times more concentrated than the average. Another who had the most viable sperm provided a sample that had a motility of 76 per cent which was double the average.

The organisers did not say how they would evaluate the “most beautiful” sperm.

There is no entrance fee to take part, but anyone joining in will need to be aged between 20 and 45, has to have a college degree or higher, and be above 5’5″ in height (165 cm).

Chen Xiangfeng, a doctor from Renji Hospital who is also in charge of the sperm bank said: “Since the launch of the activity, there have been many college students who would like to participate in it, all with complete confidentiality of course.”

Chen noted that the purpose of the event is not to collect sperm from college students, but to make them aware and pay more attention to their reproductive health.

However, he said that if anybody wanted to make their samples available they would be offered a contract it also agreed to visit regularly for about six months to provide sufficient volume and can earn up to 7,500 yuan for their efforts, which is around 850 GBP.

He urged them not to “wait until you’ve hit child-bearing age” to have a check-up even if they signed with the sperm bank or not because by then it would be too late to change damage caused by unhealthy living.

He admitted however that there had also been a shortage of sperm donors who were eligible in recent years, and they hoped to raise awareness with the sperm contest.

Chen explained that the number of sperm donors eligible for the sperm bank has been declining during recent years. This event aims to “raise young people’s awareness of reproductive health earlier” with the contest also acting as a check-up.

The Human Sperm Bank in Shanghai was founded in 2003 and provides samples for over a dozen fertility clinics across the city.