There is no doubt that university is tough on the finances - that's why students have a reputation of living on a diet of potatoes and two-minute-noodles.
It means many students are forced into taking out large loans, struggling with part-time work - or, as it turns out, turning to increasingly desperate forms of money-making.
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The annual UK Student Money Survey 2018 conducted a survey of over 3000 undergraduates at various UK universities, asking how they coped with finances during study.
The survey shows 78 percent of students worry about making ends meet while at university, with 50 percent saying their diet suffers, 69 percent saying their social life suffers and 27 percent their grades suffer from lack of funds.
Some students revealed they had even eaten out of bins or stolen from their flatmates to make ends meet, and in some cases looked into sex work.
More than a tenth - 11 percent - of students revealed they had used their bodies (sex work and drugs trials) to make money. This includes prostitution, turning to 'sugar daddies' and webcam work.
That percentage was only slightly lower than the proportion who said they had turned to their university for help (15 percent), which student finance website Save the Student said was "testament to how patchy student support is".
"Every year, our survey reveals students are involved in sex work, whether by choice or because they've run out of options," Jake Butler at Save the Student told The Mirror.
"They, along with other students struggling to get by, should be able to get the information or support they need."
Newshub.
