Two years ago, the cap on university tuition fee was removed, which saw many students finding solace in adult jobs to fund their education. Hence, the University of Leicester is requiring all its staff to support any students who turn to prostitution and other sex work to fund their studies.
Last year a survey by Save the Student website found (conducted on over 3,300 students) that one in 25 had engaged in adult work of some kind, ranging from selling intimate photographs to offering full sex for money – up from about one in 50 in 2017, when fees were capped at £9,000 per year.
It states: “The university is firmly committed to sustaining an inclusive learning, working and research environment for all students, this includes students earning money or other commodities through sex work. We recognise the social stigma associated with sex work and support students who earn a living through sex work. Students may increasingly turn to sex work to fund their studies.”
The policy also requires all university staff to support any student sex workers being harassed on campus for being sex workers and also had “a duty to support students undergoing disciplinary action by a professional body” over their sex work.
Noticeably, while soliciting sex and running brothels are both crimes, selling sex for money in itself is not illegal in the UK if it’s entirely consensual.
The policy states: “All members of staff are responsible for providing a safe, non-judgmental response and environment to any student who discloses their status as a sex worker if necessary and if they choose to do so.”
Staff at the university are also required to help create an “environment in which incidents of unacceptable interpersonal behaviours towards student sex workers are not tolerated or unchallenged”.
The policy concludes: “The purpose of these is to ensure that all students, including student sex workers, are supported to experience a university community that is free from unacceptable behaviour and characterised by respect and dignity and that where unacceptable behaviour occurs, it is managed, investigated and sanctioned as appropriate.”
