Thousands of students are signing up to a Sugar Daddy dating site that targets people in education to help pay for the costs of college and university.
Seeking Arrangement has over 500,000 British university students enlisted as ‘sugar babies’ on its site.
The site, the world’s largest sugar daddy site, advertises that students can earn a “monthly allowance of £2,900” on average as well as receiving other benefits such as mentorships, business opportunities and career advantages, Plymouth Live reports.
A sugar daddy is typically an older male seeking friendship, and often intimacy or sexual relationships, in return for providing financial support to his “sugar baby,” typically a younger female.
Seeking Arrangement also claims: “Students registered on SeekingArrangement get help paying for fees and even more benefits. Finding the right Sugar Daddy can help students gain access to the right network and opportunities.
“Student Sugar Babies in the UK can get help paying for other university-related costs, such as books and housing.”
According to Seeking Arrangement’s new annual report, the number of university students in the UK seeking a sugar daddy, or a sugar mommy, increased 36 percent.
The “fastest growing sugar baby school” for 2019 was University of Arts London, with a “new sign-up growth” of 218 people in 2018 and a total of 845 students being signed up to the site by the end of 2019.
The University of Manchester is the second fastest growing sugar baby university and University College London is third.
In Plymouth, Seeking Arrangement currently has 516 women signed up to the site seeking a sugar partner, with around 390 of these being “sugar babies” between the ages of 18 and 25.
Many of these describe themselves as a “student seeking support” or a “sugar baby trying [to] pay the bills”.
The dating website also allows sugar daddies to search for potential partners by age, body type, ethnicity, height, hair colour, smoking and drinking preferences, whether they have children or not, and what languages a suitor speaks.
Sugar Daddies – or ‘mommies’ – can also specifically search for “college” ie. university, students and specify what level of education they’d like their potential sugar baby to have.
The site is open to all and is free to use, but using a university email address gives the user a “free upgrade”.
The site says: “Get a free premium membership. Join now to find an honest and empowering arrangement. Students who sign up with their student email (.ac.uk) receive a free premium membership.”
Seeking Arrangement describes itself as the world’s largest dating website that “facilitates open and honest relationships on your terms”.
Founded in 2006 by MIT graduate and “relationship innovator” Brandon Wade, the site now has over 20 million members around the world.
Mr Wade believes young people and students are attracted to the idea of a sugar daddy because they need a different way to fund their education to a typical job.
He said: “With little regard from the institutions of the student’s inability to pay increasing tuition and living costs in the UK, university students are being forced to find alternative methods to fund their educations.
“Young people understand the importance of a degree and want to achieve their educational goals, but they can no longer depend on traditional means to get through school.”
