STUDENTS at Cambridge University will be given cash by college authorities to stay sober and ‘baby-sit’ drunken friends at night.

St John’s College is recruiting volunteers to be on call in the evenings in case another student has too much to drink and needs looking after.

They would be paid up to £100 (€115) for their efforts, according to the Daily Mail. The fees would be funded by levying disciplinary fines on partygoers who end up needing assistance.

An email sent to members of the prestigious college’s boat club asked for “a couple of people on call each night, so if a drunk staggers into the Porters’ Lodge, the porters can get this on-call sober person to babysit the drunk”, the Daily Telegraph reports. A college spokesman said the scheme was “oversubscribed with volunteers”.

College nurse Maggie Hartley told local radio station Heart: “We’d be looking to have perhaps four students on duty each night.

“I think the chances of someone being called out to look after somebody are quite slim as we don’t have that many drunks, but if we do have somebody who has been drinking too much obviously we need to look after them properly.”