Rising tuition costs and living expenses are driving post-secondary students in Edmonton to seek out older, richer dates.

Dating website SeekingArrangement.com is helping poor students hook up with “sugar daddies” and “sugar mommas,” and MacEwan University boasts the fifth fastest-growing user base among post-secondary institutions in Canada.

The university has 174 members, including 140 who joined in 2014.

“This is a trend. It’s growing,” said SeekingArrangement spokeswoman Brook Urick, citing a 42% overall increase in student signups.

So-called “sugar babies,” who are typically young women in their mid-20s, receive an average monthly allowance of $3,000 a month from the financially well-endowed dates they meet through the site.

Urick said MacEwan’s numbers have likely spiked due to word of mouth.

“It seems like a pretty significant number of people,” she said.

“People experience success with the site, and if they like it they tell someone else ... and then they join the site, too.”

The University of Alberta has 363 registered sugar babies vying for “mutually beneficial relationships” with one of the 1,866 Edmonton sugar daddies. The daddies are usually middle aged, though many are in their 30s or younger.

Roughly 1.4 million students use the site, accounting for 42% of its overall membership.

The University of Toronto is the fastest-growing university in Canada for signups, with 195 students joining in 2014.

Urick said rising tuition, living costs, and low wages for young graduates all contribute to the website’s growing success. Most four-year university graduates in Canada will leave post-secondary with more than $10,000 in debt.

“A lot of girls maybe would have foregone college if they hadn’t seen this as an option. Just because it’s not really accessible,” Urick said.

Young men account for roughly 10% of sugar babies, though Urick admits male students are less likely to find success through the site due to the small, but growing, number of sugar mommas.

“Traditional gender roles kind of dictate that sugar mommas just aren’t as common,” she said.

“As the lifestyle becomes more popular there are some that are able to come on this site and have their pick of the litter of all these male sugar babies who are looking for their golden ticket sugar momma.”

The website was founded in 2006 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Brandon Wade, who used student loans to pay for his schooling.

Its first Sugar Convention will be held in May this year in New York City.

kevin.maimann@sunmedia.ca