University makes millions from fines

Leeds University libraries accumulate the most money from overdue library books in the country.

In the last six academic years a staggering £1.8m has been raked in, which is a sizable £600,000 more than Manchester which came in second place with £1.3m collected.

This paper will, in light of this discovery, be investigating exactly where all your money goes.

With fines as little as 10p a day per book, it seems that students are returning thousands of books late each year. But many are never returned – more than 300,000 books nationally are unaccounted for.

Although Leeds topped the money charts, it seems the University didn’t figure in the rankings for unreturned books. Institutions such as Oxford and Kent had the most books at large.

Overall, the Press Association study showed that universities have raised almost £50m from fining students for overdue library books in the past six years. In total, 101 universities responded to the request, although many were unable to provide details of the amounts they fined students for late library loans.

Although our charges seem high, in comparison to other Universities we have it easy.

At Edinburgh Napier, which calls itself ‘Scotland’s biggest University’, fines can be up to £1 per book per day.

In response to it’s sky high charges, a spokesperson said: “The charge on the invoice reflects the amount it would cost us to replace the item using our normal suppliers.”

Here at Leeds, library fines can reach £30 before further action is taken, but at Imperial College London a tiny £4 fine will lead to library privileges being revoked until the books are returned.

Perhaps the harshest punishment, however, comes from the University of Westminster where students are banned from using the library for the length of time that the books were overdue rather than forking out cash.