University fees are extortionate, there's no escaping that fact. The average price for a degree in 2013 is now £9000, after prices rocketed last year, and if you're living in the UK, unless you're lucky enough to come from well-off stock or suddenly win the lottery, student debt will follow you around for most of your life. But not in Rosie Reid's case, the 18-year-old student who auctioned her virginity on eBay to pay for her studies. Back in 2004, the lesbian university scholar from London had sex with the highest bidder, a 44-year old BT engineer, in a hotel room in Euston. He paid £8400. All you post-grads reading this are probably thinking 'Of course! Why didn't we think of that when we were poor students, working around the clock and sucking on our jacket sleeves for nutrients? Online prostitution is the answer!' What started as a joke, Rosie Reid stated, soon ended up as "why not?", and she was said to have received responses from more than 2000 men around the world, stating she would rather sleep with a stranger than face years of comparative poverty. EBay actually withdrew her ad, but she continued with the auction on a website of her own. In an interview with the News of the World, she described the moment she had to give her virginity to divorced father-of-two, after he gave her a banker's draft. "I felt obliged to please him as he had just paid all this money." she said. "I was just so relieved when it was over. I was desperate to get back to Jess as I felt so uncomfortable." The next morning she said she joined her partner and they "just cried and cried". In the words of Mr Mackey - the Internet's bad, mmkay?
