‘What’s the difference between doing [sexually explicit acts] on a webcam and working in a bar?’ But her comments horrified campaigners, who called the remarks ‘incredibly irresponsible and stupid’. The Student Sex Work project was a three-year study that carried out a survey of 6,773 university students, using nearly half a million pounds of National Lottery funding.

It found sex work is just as common among male undergraduates as it is among female students. Many male students are in demand from hen parties to strip – through websites offering services such as ‘butlers in the buff’, the study said.

The academics claimed sex work was ‘not inherently harmful’ to students who ‘should not be stigmatised’ or disciplined for offering escort services on campus.