Graduates are stripping off for their careers with research revealing one in four lap dancers has a degree.

A study by The University of Leeds has found aspiring actresses, models and artists together with unemployed arts graduates are earning between £24,000 and £48,000 a year doing two to four shifts a week.

Many see lap dancing as a way of breaking into the entertainment industry.

The research conducted by Dr Teela Sanders and Kate Hardy also found the vast majority of dancers had high levels of job satisfaction. Flexibility was one of the main attractions of the job.

However, the research suggested that better regulation was needed to improve dancers’ safety, such as the banning of private booths, while it warned clubs often exploited dancers by imposing unfair charges or fines on them.

Dr Sanders said she was surprised at what she described as an 'endless supply of women' wanting to be lap dancers.

She added: "These women are incredibly body confident. I think there is something of a generational cultural difference.

"These young women do not buy the line that they are being exploited, because they are the ones making the money out of a three-minute dance and a bit of a chat. You have got to have a certain way about you to do it. They say 80per cent of the job is talking. These women do work hard for their money – you don't just turn up and wiggle your bum.

"But there is an issue about whether these women become trapped in the job because of the money. I think people often stay longer than they want."

Among those spoken to by researchers almost 90 percent had completed a further education course, while one in four had undergraduate degrees. More than a third were currently in some form of education, with 14 percent using dancing to help fund an undergraduate degree.