Students at Oxford and Cambridge universities have been offered a new way of paying their tuition fees -- by working for an escort agency.

Nick Dekker, 23, a classics student at Balliol College, has set up the website www.oxbridge-escorts.com, which offers male and female undergraduates as dates for clients willing to pay a £100 registration fee.

The emphasis is on providing sparkling company for an evening date at a restaurant or the theatre -- but not sex.

Mr Dekker said sex was "emphatically not part of the package" but the service would not be able to legislate for what people agreed to do after their date.

He added: "A lot of people in Oxford have money problems with student fees and we're not really encouraged to work. We think this is a fun way to make money."

More than 20 students have offered their services so far, including Portia Walker, a 21-year-old English student at Magdalen College, who said she lived on a "relatively tight budget in an expensive city" and escorting was a good way of meeting people and making money.

Cordelia Bowdery, 19, a student at Regent's Park College, in Oxford, added: "We're all here on this career ladder and in this Oxford bubble and it's important to interact a bit more with the outside world."

A few men have also agreed to work as escorts, including Alex Blasdel, 23, a Balliol College classics student.

He said: "Oxford is quite insular and you don't often meet people outside your age group."

Mr Dekker said clients would be asked to state if they had any criminal convictions and would have to agree the length and cost of their date in advance.

Rebecca Wilkinson, women's representative of Oxford University Students' Union, said: "It has safety implications. How safe is it for women to go off with men they don't know anything about?

"Students are turning to other means of funding and not ones you would hope they would turn to."