A British university is defending its student union’s decision to offer training to students working in the adult sex work industry.
Durham University in Durham, England, said the training, aimed at educating people about sex work and how to respond sensitively when someone discloses their work in the industry, is not designed to encourage students to enter the industry, but rather to destigmatize it.
“We are emphatically not seeking to encourage sex work, but we are seeking to provide support to our students,” a spokesperson for the university said. “We don’t judge. We listen, support, and give practical help. We run many courses for students and staff on topics from mental health and well-being to drug and alcohol awareness.”
Eliminating the stigma surrounding sex work could help students who are vulnerable or at-risk access “the support they need and to which they are entitled,” the spokesperson continued.
The Durham Student Union advertised the training in an email that laid out the union’s stance on sex work and the importance of destigmatizing it.
“Student sex workers should not face any barriers to accessing support which is well informed and free from prejudice,” the email read, according to Palatinate, the university’s student newspaper. “The SU positions on students in sex work are clear: support, informed advice, de-stigmatisation and collaboration with expert organizations. We are happy to announce an important part of the work towards our goals, implemented by the Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response team in coordination with North East Sex Work forum and Student Sex workers.”
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The university said it received several requests for training to help students make informed, safe decisions in the industry over the years, according to the Times of London.
Durham’s Member of Parliament Mary Foy backed the school’s decision to host the courses, saying the university “consulted carefully before deciding to provide this support, engaging with student representatives, members of the university’s sexual misconduct and violence operations group, equality, diversity, and inclusion unit, counselling and mental health service and safeguarding representatives.”
“This was not a decision made on a whim or to promote sex-work. The safety and well-being of students in Durham is paramount,” she continued.
But the proposal also attracted backlash from those such as Michelle Donelan, the minister for higher and further education in Britain, who said the training was an attempt to “normalize selling sex.”
“I’m deeply concerned that any university is legitimizing a dangerous industry which thrives on the exploitation of women,” Donelan said. “It is right that vital support is offered to women who are being exploited. However, this course seeks to normalize selling sex, which has no place in our universities.”
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Durham is not the only university in England to attempt to destigmatize the industry. In 2015, the student union at Goldsmiths, University of London, said that “sex work is work … the exchange of money for labour, like any other job,'” according to the Daily Mail. Student unions at other British universities, such as Cambridge, Bristol, and Edinburgh, have also worked to destigmatize sex work, the outlet added.
