Officially, Cambridge students do not work during termtime. A few hours a week at the college bar is all that is allowed. It’s an open secret that many of us fit evening and weekend jobs around our studies. Undergraduate life is expensive these days, especially for those who enjoy the odd luxury. But why are 350 Cantabridgians working as escorts? Why are 500 – nearly one in twenty – writing bespoke essays for anonymous clients?

The Call Girl I slept with clients on 40-50 occasions over a period of two months. It started in my first year. There are several agencies in Cambridge. I chose my one because they didn’t have a website, and they have branches all over the UK under different names. Curiosity made me do it. Clients were charged £120 per hour; you got £50, the agency got £50 and your driver got £20. Drivers take you to the client’s houses and wait outside, sort of like a bodyguard. You could drive yourself and make a bit more money but not many girls did that – it’s a bit too dangerous.

I would sleep with between one and seven clients a night

I would sleep with between one and seven clients a night, the most being at Christmas when it was really busy. If it was a quiet night and someone wanted a deal I would offer it for cheaper than 50 pounds, or if someone only wanted half an hour. I probably earned between £5-6k in the time I was at the agency, about £1000 per week cash in hand. I would sometimes get tips, the most being £150. Once you’ve done this, it is tempting. If you need quick, easy money, it’s there. The money went on going out, partying, clothes... it went on absolutely nothing. It was just a day-to-day lifestyle thing, but very extravagant for a student.

The clients were really varied. The youngest I saw was 18, the eldest 80 (although we couldn’t really do a great deal). Some houses would be really amazing, others weren’t that well-off. Some had wives who were away, some had just got divorced, and there were stag dos. Quite a few men were regulars who would spend more than £400 a week, every week. I did turn down clients when they were disgusting and I never went to someone I knew from Cambridge. We would get calls from students once or twice a fortnight. It does happen that you see someone you know and that was a concern of mine, especially when I would go near student areas like Mill Road. They would be in student accommodation, but not in college. We did get a call out to Trinity while I was there. I didn’t go, but the girl thought the client was a fellow or a professor as he was an older man in nice accommodation in the college. It happens.

Clients did like the fact that I was a Cambridge student, and so did the agency. They liked having a classier girl there – it was good for business. I got more extensions on the one hour call-out than the other girls. Some asked to see me privately, away from the agency, and I would go even though we weren’t supposed to – it was £300 straight in your pocket.

I thought in a way it was quite glamorous, especially getting dressed up in nice clothes and getting told you were beautiful all the time. We were encouraged to wear dresses or skirts, stockings, suspenders and nice lingerie. If we didn’t look nice enough or if we didn’t do what the agency wanted they would threaten to chuck you out. There was no room for bullshit; in a business like that you have to be that way. A couple of times I did get a bit scared. I got locked in a house once along with some other girls by a client, but we got him to let us out after a while. It was alright in the end, but still frightening. One driver made a deal with his mate and they drugged one of the girls at the agency and took turns with her. He was beaten the shit out of. Knowing what I know now, you can’t trust anyone.

It definitely got in the way of my academic work. I would usually go out about three nights a week and wouldn’t get home before three, even on a quiet night. Usually I wouldn’t get home until 6am, so of course I couldn’t keep up with my work. I did have a day job for a while at the same time, but it just wasn’t paying enough. In the end, I left of my own accord. I just didn’t fancy doing it anymore. It did affect my studies but it was good while it lasted. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to others as it really does take nerves of steel - you have to be sure that it is what you want to do. Most girls wouldn’t be able to do it - it’s silly, reckless and there are so many more important things to be doing as a student. But, at times it was very Belle du Jour - and I liked that.

The Stripper
I started just after I split up with my boyfriend. I wanted to do something that would piss him off, and the only thing I could think of was to be a pole dancer - so I marched straight in. The first time I was numb all over. I was still so emotional that it didn’t sink in. My first night I earned 150 quid. If it had been a really bad night I might not have carried it on, but there was no looking back. In my first year I would go to the club from Cambridge every other weekend, or go a few weekends in a row and then take the next few off.

I started just after I split up with my boyfriend. I wanted to do something that would piss him off

On an average night I would be working from 10.30pm. First you have to wear a long dress that doesn’t show too much flesh, then at midnight you change into something skimpier, usually a short dress, although some girls wear the most horrible things possible – nipple tassels and so on. We don’t actually take our clothes off at the pole. We talk to the men for a while, have a drink with them, and then go to a private booth if they want a dance. There are cameras everywhere. It’s £20 for a private lap dance, and we do on average about 20 a night. On a good night I could go home with £300. If I had a huge phone bill to pay I would make myself stay and dance until I had earned it. We can’t leave before 4am, and at busy times like Christmas we could stay until 6am. We actually pay £50 house fee every night. In this sense we are just renting the floor space and access to clients; we are self-employed, making our own money.

We’ve had a 92 year old in with his family on a stag do

I’ve met so many different people doing this job: some as young as 17, and we’ve had a 92 year old in with his family on a stag do. I’ve met people like footballers, who are polite and always buy you a drink, but there are others who want you to take your clothes off for a fiver. That’s what makes me question this job. It can be so degrading. If you turn your back on some men for a second they will try to put their hands where they shouldn’t. Those are the moments I really don’t want to do it, and I do get angry and upset, but it is character building. A lot of men ask for extras or for you to go home with them for money. I don’t do that, but lots of the others do.

I won’t be dancing very much anymore. I really thought I could go for the weekends and come back and work, but I think the reason I didn’t do as well in my second year as I wanted to was that I danced so much. I feel that being at Cambridge really cancels out being a stripper. I have my head screwed on. Some men think you are some single mother, the usual clichés. I love to see their faces when I tell them where I’m at university. Now that I’ve done it for so long it has desensitised me to it. It’s like having a double life. It doesn’t really mean anything to me now, although that doesn’t mean that I would ever be an escort. I see it as acting; I even have a different name. The money helps to pay for things like rent, and my lifestyle has been pretty luxurious, but then I don’t think that many Cambridge students really live the poor student life. I ran out of money in my first year and that was when I did it the most. The only reason I dance now is for the money. It is such easy cash in hand. I have a boyfriend who would like me to stop, but I’m not going to stack shelves in Morrison’s for £5.50 an hour when I could do this.

The Essayist

The most amount of work I’ve done for an essay was a day, and that was for the dissertation. That was six in the morning until four in the afternoon. I definitely felt like I earned my money for that. The disclaimers say things like we can’t give in any old work we’ve done before - it has to be original for the brief we have been given. We can’t plagiarize, which is ironic, because it is obvious you are writing essays for other people to use as their own.

The disclaimers don’t say anything about what the essays will be used for. But you know. Every single essay I’ve done, I’ve known it is no way just a ‘study guide’. I’ve even done one that I know was for a Cambridge student, from the lecture notes that were sent to me. Once, I was sent a case study of a school placement in a brief. It had to be inserted in the essay, in their writing, and then I would carry on with my own writing, so it wasn’t at all integrated. They do have this legal loophole when everyone knows what really happens to the essays we write. And that’s why they keep their clients anonymous; to cover themselves. But as long as I get paid I don’t mind.

I get the impression that it’s not just students but supervisors at the university who write Oxbridge Essays. The person who buys the essays is pretty much paying double what you get paid. Oxbridge Essays don’t tell you that, but I checked the fees for a couple of essays I have done and it was twice what I got paid. But because the money is so good you don’t question it. You don’t care. I’m really cold towards people who pay for essays. Although I’m benefiting from it, I have no respect for the people doing it. I think you really shouldn’t get someone else to do your work. There are people who send request after request to Oxbridge Essays; you can tell from the briefs. Obviously it’s their whole course that they are paying for. That pisses me off.

I know it’s unethical, but it is so expensive in Cambridge, and the money you earn in the holidays does not cover term time too. I think that if they let us work during term time, there would be fewer people doing it. If I could get a proper part time job like a bar job, I would. I don’t feel like a victim, forced to do it, but I think Cambridge’s policy does make some students do Oxbridge Essays when they don’t have to. I don’t think I’m cheating. I’m making good money to improve my writing. I know now that I can write a 2.1 standard masters essay, as a second year undergrad. If someone wants to pay someone else to write their essay that’s their problem. I care more about it when I see briefs from medicine students - that makes me worry that they would, and should, have failed their course when they have passed through Oxbridge Essays.

Katherine Faulkner and Lucy McKeon

Do they, or don't they?TAKE ME TO DINNER

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The service, originally called Oxbridge Escorts, was launched by Oxford classics student Nick Dekker in 2005 to intense media interest. Since then a number of journalists have attempted (unsuccesfully) to expose the website as an upmarket prostitution service.

The company has always maintained that, unlike many other escort services, they provide dinner dates only and no additional services. Escorts must agree to abide by the policy against “inappropriate behaviour.”

All the escorts we have spoken to claim to abide by the policy, though they say clients occasionally appear disappointed.

Is it legal?OXBRIDGE ESSAYS

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To buy or sell essays students must sign a legally binding undertaking that forbids plagiarism. Essays are provided as a “model or inspiration only”.

Matthew Harris, a leading Intellectual property lawyer, said: “any Company which, in reality, is encouraging unlawful behaviour is not going to be able to hide behind a piece of paper in court. Any judge would look at the facts of how this service is being used, and assess whether or not it is the case that they are inducing the breaking of a contract.”

A spokesperson for Oxbridge Essays says: “This is all pure speculation based on no evidence. The writer you spoke to has never had any contact with the recipients of his essays. The only basis for his accusation of plagiarism is that we submit briefs with very specific titles. This is because our clients pay a high price for a very specific model...I have spoken to many students, in particular international students, who receive very little advice from tutors on how to write an essay. Perhaps this kind of advice should ideally be coming universities, but we are pragmatists. It is very little different to hiring a private tutor. Nobody has any moral objections to that.”