Forget the struggles of completing an Oxbridge degree — a group of economists have calculated that appearing as a contestant on TV show Love Island for eight weeks is likely to net you more money over the course of your life than three years at Oxford or Cambridge university.

Analysis by Frontier Economics, an economic consultancy, estimated that someone who appears on the show could expect to earn ￡1.1m from subsequent sponsorship and appearance fees compared with a lifetime average return of ￡815,000 from completing an undergraduate degree at Oxbridge.

With the hit ITV2 show, featuring sun, sangria and sex on the east coast of Mallorca, Spain, reaching its climax on Monday, five Frontier economists spent two weeks demonstrating that celebrity pays more than scholarship.