{"id":482,"date":"2012-02-23T09:55:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T09:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/?p=482"},"modified":"2021-10-18T08:26:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T08:26:01","slug":"students-are-increasingly-turning-to-prostitution-to-fund-their-studies-or-are-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/2012\/02\/students-are-increasingly-turning-to-prostitution-to-fund-their-studies-or-are-they\/","title":{"rendered":"Students are increasingly turning to prostitution to fund their studies – or are they?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tweet<\/a><\/span>UPDATE (Feb 29 2012): The Telegraph reports<\/a> on research that suggests “one in ten students know someone who works in sex trade”. The actual research is somewhat more specific<\/a>: “A tenth of trainee doctors<\/em> now claim to know someone who is selling their body” [emphasis added]. This was also at just one London university.\u00a0Also note that this is second hand, and ‘knowledge’ of prostitution is likely to be passed on, so levels of awareness do not directly reflect incidence (knowledge of a single person’s\u00a0prostitution\u00a0could easily be shared by 32 other people, which is the “10%” referred to). Links to previous research are given in the BMJ Student piece<\/a>\u00a0(registration required)\u00a0which the Telegraph has rewritten.<\/p>\n

—ORIGINAL POST—<\/p>\n

The BBC reported last November<\/a> that the National Union of Students<\/a> believe increasing numbers of students are turning to prostitution to fund their studies because of a lack of jobs and the rise in fees. The evidence appears anecdotal and parochial \u2013but it is a story which has a powerful attraction for the media. (Witness the interest in Bristol PhD student Belle de Jour<\/a> aka Dr Brooke Magnanti). So is it true or not?<\/p>\n

The evidence in the BBC report for this appears to be:<\/p>\n