“You have an Exam but you don’t even feel like reading”: Academic Impacts of Sextortion on Female Undergraduates

Abstract

Sexual extortion (sextortion) of female students by their male lecturers has been observed to be a widespread malpractice in Nigerian higher education institutions (HEIs). The lecturers may deliberately fail students who rejected their sexual advances or punish them in some other ways. This current study explored the academic impacts of sextortion on Nigerian female students. Primary and secondary data were employed. Primary data involved semi-structured interviews of 25 female graduates and undergraduates selected from 6 universities and 2 polytechnics in the southeastern part of Nigeria. All the participants were real victims of sextortion at the hands of their lecturers. Secondary data came from 6 media outlets involving the accounts of victims who narrated their sextortion experiences to newsagents. The secondary data were used for triangulation purposes. Both data sources show striking similarities regarding the victims’ experiences. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Four themes were developed from the data and these are (i) Encouraging academic laziness; (ii) Inviting thoughts about dropping out; (iii) Paving the way for low grade or fail; and (iv) Jeopardising academic progress. Data relating to each theme were analysed in-depth with verbatim interview quotes. Recommendations were made on how to address sextortion in Nigerian HEIs.

Keywords: sextortion, sexual harassment; sex for marks; higher education institutions; female students; male lecturers, patriarchy

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/16-6-01

Publication date: June 30^th 2025