Up in Smoke: Extracurricular Activities

Tuition fees for postsecondary education are always a touchy subject, especially for those who have a hard time securing the funds to put themselves through school. Not only is the amount of some students’ debt disturbing, it seems that a trend of selling sex for tuition money is on the rise, too.

While exchanging sex for education isn’t something new, one poll showed that New York University was the top college for sugar daddy website users, with over 498 registered. Prestigious schools like the University of Toronto, Harvard and Ohio State were on the list as well. What’s alarming, though, is that some students, who may not know about the sugar daddy lifestyle, seem to be turning to prostitution to fund their studies.

A website run in the U.K., which has since been taken down, was said to have set up over 1,400 women with the funds they needed for school in exchange for an “adventurous” night out with a businessman. It is said that in 2010 more than 10 percent of British university students knew someone who worked in the sex industry to pay for tuition and living expenses, two and a half times higher than in previous years.

We’re sure with the rise of tuition we’ll be seeing a rise of sex work in students as well. The big question is whether the correlation will be given any more attention than before.