When applying for an internship at a prestigious economics firm, candidates will likely present a résumé consisting of their academic accolades, and they might bring along a letter of recommendation or two. Applicants are seldom asked to strip down to their skivvies and twerk to prove their ability to create statistical charts or conduct research analysis.

But a group of college students were asked to do just that for Prague’s University of Economics beauty pageant. The winner of the pageant is awarded an internship at an unnamed economics firm in the Czech Republic, Jezebel reports.

Several universities in the Czech Republic hold pageants annually, with the typical glamorous evening wear and probing interview portions of the competition. This year, The MissVSE pageant partnered up with local tabloid eXtra, an online source with a clear predilection for booty bouncing. After the ladies proved their athleticism by way of bikini modeling, the degradation began. A high-energy hype woman circled through the uncomfortable-looking contestants, who were clad in swim tops and booty shorts etched with the tabloid’s logo, urging them to shake it.

One contestant refused to participate. Maybe the others didn’t find the task offensive, or perhaps they were just desperate to get their foot in the door at any cost. The Czech Republic has the second-highest pay gap between men and women in the European Union at a whopping 28.5 percent.

Some who witnessed the humiliating event took to social media, calling it pornographic and sad. Others slut-shamed the contestants for willingly participating or slammed the university for its complicity.

“What seriously bothers me in this case is the sexualization of female students under the patronage of a university in a way that probably wouldn’t be allowed in any all-republic beauty pageant contests,” Czech reporter Hana Biriczová told Jezebel.

Pageant officials have apologized for the vulgar turn the dance portion took, blaming the derogatory nature on eXtra’s interference. They did however, defend the art of twerking: “Twerk is a modern kind of dance that is lately very popular among young [people] and begins to [be a] dance style.”

They also promised that the pageant’s winner was chosen based on her swimwear and evening gown scores, not her dance moves.

Here’s how it all went down. We warn you, it’s embarrassing: