With the increase in student debt, as well as the slashing of university funding for grants and bursaries, sex work is an increasingly attractive prospect for cash-strapped students.
Fresh from art school, Ringwood won an Arts Council bursary to work in a theatre for a year.
Changes to the eligibility criteria for bursaries to study social work degrees have been introduced to quell the oversupply of social workers, but it is as yet unclear as to the impact these will have on student numbers.
Scrapping social work bursaries is not a new strategy.
Rumours that the government is considering scrapping social work bursaries have caused alarm among students at the University of Sussex.
The universities defended their record, insisting they were increasing outreach work, bursaries and targeting of poorer students and were actively investigating new ways of improving recruitment.
Many argue pay incentives and bursaries don't work because teachers aren't motivated by money and school budgets are too tight to offer meaningful incentives.
It has no remit over universities' admissions policies, but has the power to stop universities from charging top-up fees beyond the current £1,200 a year and issue £500,000 penalties where universities are making no real efforts - through bursaries and outreach work - to meet their benchmarks, which they set in negotiation with Offa.
This has long been the case but higher fees are ushering in more explicit forms of commercial behaviour: cash-back deals (bursaries if you work at Offa), laptops and iPad bundles, all backed up with customer satisfaction surveys and strategic branding.
In 1997 Michael Murphy, who has died of a brain tumour, aged 43, won a bursary – combining editorial work and doctoral research – with Nottingham Trent University's Trent Editions.
Meanwhile, the looming issue of the future of the social work bursary could have a critical impact on the profession's capacity to refresh its ranks and meet the growing demands it faces.
