UNDIE-GRADUATES
SKINT students are selling sex on social media to pay for university.
One in 10 admitted using their body to make money to pay off mounting debts.
Website Save The Student found 78% of those at university are struggling to get by.
On average, they get £600 a month from their Maintenance Loan and £138.50 from their parents.
But average living costs have hit £770 monthly.
Some students have admitted to posing for webcam sites, dating sugar daddies and even offering sex to survive. One student, who is in her second year at Kent University, claims to make £1,000 a week just by posting saucy snaps on social media.
She said: “I got involved when I heard a friend of a friend was doing it and making substantial amounts of money. I have very few university contact hours so it is easy to fit around my studies.”
She finds work through an agency which taught her how to be a webcammer via WhatsApp.
She added: “It is reassuring to know I will always have a back-up option and never be completely stuck without any source of income, especially since I’m almost entirely independent from my parents.”
Since last year, English universities have charged up to £9,250 per year for an undergraduate degree for British students.
The estimated average debt when an individual graduates is about £50,000.
Jake Butler, Save The Student’s money expert, said: “Every year our survey reveals students are involved in sex work, whether by choice or because they have run out of options.”