Love them or loathe them, the Kardashian family are going nowhere.

Public fascination with reality TV stars coupled with the family's innate desire to feed that fascination with the help of complex love lives and dysfunctional relationships means the Kardashian family will, whether you like it or not, always be prime watercooler fodder.

And with Kylie and Kendall carving names for themselves, and the arrival of Mason, Penelope, North, Reign and Saint, we're already gearing up for KUWTK: The Next Generation after Kim, Kourtney and Khloé finally decide to go live in their walk-in wardrobes and never emerge.

And by examining this obsession with the Calabasas clan, one University of Durham has just earned herself a first-class degree.

Sociology student, Eliza Cummings-Gove, was told she was 'ridiculous' for devoting her 10,000 word dissertation to the famous family, but it looks like the powers that be had other ideas, and awarded the 20-year-old Londoner the highest honour.

"I think there is a lot of cultural snobbery about it," Eliza said. "The Kardashians are everywhere in the media and they are shaping many of the girls today into the women they will become."

"In my dissertation I didn't have enough words to talk about the men in the family and their role in a post-feminist world," she explained. "The relationship between women and their partners, ex-partners and, in Rob's case, their brother is a really interesting and complex."

Eliza, who admits she was 'euphoric' upon hearing of her results, explained that she watched 80 hours of the reality show as part of her research.

80 hours? That's basically us when we have a duvet weekend…

Centre image: Caters