Universities around the UK issued disciplinary and administrative fines totalling greater than £550,000 to students last year.
Freedom of knowledge requests from the Guardian have shown students were fined a complete of £551,237.30 for offences which includes smoking, drunkenness, and unauthorised parties within the last academic year. One institution said it used the cash collected to fund the once a year staff outing.
The results also revealed quite a lot of peculiarities within the amounts fined for every offence. At Brunel University, while “assisting students with online tests for money” landed one student with a £250 fine, another was fined £50 for “hitting a member of staff”.
A student at Kent University was fined £50 for “insulting or violent behaviour including or involving racial, sexual or other abuse, harassment or threat of violence” – the same quantity that many were charged for smoking offences.
Other offences that ended in disciplinary action at universities included keeping chickens, leaving food on a window ledge, stealing loaves of bread and being prepared for a post-examination “trashing” of another student. Warwick University issued fines totalling £350 last year to students who were “drunk”, without a further reason given.
Middlesex University issued one of the most fines, charging a complete of £61,400 for “late payments”, with students paying a £200 penalty for failing to pay tuition fees or provide confirmation of sponsorship on time. The university said the late payment charge was introduced in 2011/2012, adding: “It affected 1% of scholars, nearly all of that are overseas fee-payers.”
A spokesperson added: “If there have been no late payments, the university will be ready to save cash spent on credit control staff. We therefore view these additional costs as an instantaneous results of those students not paying on time and wish the pricetag to be borne by those people who are answerable for it.”
Bangor charged the second one most, issuing £42,479 worth of fines. Students may be further disciplined if fines remain unpaid for longer than 14 days, and then the university may begin court proceedings.
Thirty-four of the 128 institutions questioned said they didn’t fine students for disciplinary matters. A secretary at one, who wished to stay anonymous, said: “a private and unofficial observation is that there’s reluctance to fine students because [of] the financial hardship that many students face; if another remedy will be found, this will be preferred.”
Most universities said the cash collected formed portion of the “other income” bracket of their accounts. However the University of Wales Trinity St David, Hertfordshire University, and two Cambridge colleges – Downing and St John’s – admitted such income didn’t happen of their annual accounts.
The period of time students are given to pay a great varies. Many universities offer 14 days to clear fines a good way to avoid further punishment, but Oxford has the facility to issue immediate fines, which students have just two days to pay with the intention to avoid potential suspension.
Oxford said: “Immediate fines are imposed for specified acts of anti-social behaviour on public thoroughfares after university examinations. The common amount is under £100 and the fines should be paid within two working days. There’s a right of appeal and failure to pay would not bring about automatic rustication [suspension].”
Oxford and Cambridge rank seventh and fifth respectively inside the fines table. Fines for missing a supervision with a tutor vary from £10 to £200 across Cambridge colleges. While many faculties said the cash was used to fund student hardship programmes, Downing college, Cambridge, admitted using the fines to fund the “annual staff outing”.
Many universities said that they had no specific hardship policy in place to assist students who couldn’t pay, often saying that cases were treated individually. Most institutions said students couldn’t graduate unless all fines were cleared.
The National Union of scholars president, Liam Burns, condemned the dearth of support for college students who couldn’t afford to pay, saying: “At a time when students who cannot rely upon their families or savings for financial support face a living costs shortfall of £8,500 every year, it’s also crucial that any consideration of levying of fines takes student hardship into consideration.
“Students, like anyone else, have a responsibility to these around them, but any possible sanctions ought be made to be clear to the scholar previous to time, should only be issued after adequate warnings, and be in proportion to the offence.
“It’s completely wrong for money extracted from students to be siphoned off to fund staff jollies. If money is collected through fines it can be reinvested to profit students, in hardship funds and library resources.”
