DESPERATE students are being forced into prostitution as the cost of higher education spirals out of reach for the majority of the country’s university and college students, a report has found.

A recently launched Student Solidarity Trust (SST) report on a study examining the life of female students at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) concluded that desperation has forced some students to do things they would not do under normal circumstances.

Compiled by UZ’s Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa and Dr Charity Manyeruke, the SST report concludes that some students have had to resort to prostitution and relationships of convenience.

“Some of the students were unfortunate enough to be offered accommodation by a gardener who often compelled them to have sex with him as payment for the accommodation,” part of the report reads.

“Many students, though aware of exploitation, had no other means of surviving in Harare while attending university classes except by consorting with gardeners and other men offering cheap or free accommodation.”

The report also says to beat transport blues, both male and female students would catch rides on open trucks and disembark at robot-controlled intersections without paying the fare.

While some male students walk into town after lectures to reduce transport costs, some female students use their femininity, flirting with men with cars in exchange for free rides.

The introduction of the multiple currencies saw university fees rise to several hundreds of United States dollars per semester but with most people earning monthly salaries of around US$200 higher education is increasingly becoming unaffordable.