Durham University Is Offering Students Lessons on How to Be a Prostitute

Durham University in Durham, England, is reportedly offering its students online lessons on how to stay safe while working as a prostitute. The university also noted that there has been an “emerging trend” of its graduates going on to join the sex industry.

The course is being created by the Durham Students’ Union amid rising rates of Durham graduates taking up work as prostitutes or producing explicit content online, according to a report by GB News.

The lessons are reportedly designed to provide support and advice to staff and students who are getting involved in the sex industry.

Areal photo of the Durham University, Queen’s Campus in Thornaby, Stockton-on-xd taken on a beautiful sunny day near to the Infinity Bridge ( Duncan Cuthbertson/Getty)

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ALIX RIJCKAERT A German prostitute, called Eve, waits for clients behind her window in the red light district of Amsterdam on December 8, 2008. (Photo credit should read ANOEK DE GROOT/AFP via Getty Images)

The university backed a Durham Students’ Union email to all students and staff advertising the courses. The school also reportedly insisted the training was important to “ensure students can be safe and make informed choices,” and pointed out an “emerging trend” of students joining the sex industry, reports the Times.

Michelle Donelan, the Minister of State for Universities of the United Kingdom, slammed the university for “legitimizing a dangerous industry” and “badly failing in their duty to protect” its students.

“Any university that does this is badly failing in their duty to protect students,” Donelan affirmed.

“It is right that vital support is offered to women who are being exploited,” the minister continued. “However, this course seeks to normalize selling sex, which has no place in our universities.”

“We know this is a sector that can target young women and students and trap them in the role,” Donelan added. “Universities should be focusing on raising awareness of the dangers of this and supporting women.”

One session — advertised as “an interactive course that explores the challenges student sex workers can face” — was reportedly fully booked.

Durham University and the Students’ Union reportedly received several complaints from students who said that promoting the courses to students and staff called attention to the reality that prostitution was available on campus.

“This could cause a real problem, making it part of university culture and making work in the sex industry a normalized activity,” one student told the Times.

“Everyone who I’ve spoken to is pretty disgusted that adult sex-worker training classes are being promoted by our own students’ union,” the student added.

The move by the university comes after the University of Leicester in Leicester, England, last month introduced an online “toolkit” to help students considering prostitution, notes the Times.

The school reportedly justified the move by explaining that it is legal to engage in activities such as charging people to watch them strip, providing services to “sugar daddies,” working on sex chat lines, and selling used underwear online for sexual gratification.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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