Do you remember the Cambridge Call Girl who hit the news in 2007? She started in her first year of university, and claimed that she would sleep with between one and seven clients a night. She charged clients £120 per hour (£50 for the agency, £20 for the driver, £50 for her). The Call Girl declared that she probably earned between £5-6k while she was at the agency, and about £1000 a week cash in hand. She remarked that clients (and the agency) liked the fact she was a Cambridge student, as she seemed classier.
It's now three years later and the situation has not changed. February of this year saw the publication of statistics stating that one in seven Cambridge students is now dealing drugs to help pay their way through university. These students deemed dealing a necessity to make ends meet as they studied. Nearly two-thirds of students admitted to taking drugs and one undergraduate was quoted saying that 'It is unsurprising in such a high-stress environment that so many students use drugs as a way to relax and completely disconnect'.
Prostitution, too, has remained an issue among students struggling to pay for university. A City student recently revealed she knew a fellow undergraduate working as a prostitute from her campus bedroom ('I knew of someone who was doing it - she would have three or four men leave her room every day') and Swansea students are believed to be increasingly turning to the sex trade to fund their studies. And, even more shockingly, a recent BBC report has reported that the number of men selling their bodies for sex is on the rise. Phil Mitchell of charity Blast (which works with sexually exploited men and boys in Bradford and Leeds) has stated that 'A lot of guys believe quite wrongly that it's fun and it's exciting and it's just a quick and easy way to get some cash'.
So, with tuition fees rising at the end of this academic year and the average student currently leaving university with a debt of around £27,000 (which is set to rise to £53,000 next year), it seems as if the practice of student selling their bodies and dealing drugs to pay their way through university is only going to rise. My only advice for students who feel tempted to earn some easy money in this way is to remind them that the emotional damage that may come as a result of these moneymaking activities will be of far greater cost.
