Ranked: This is how many students at your uni have been punished for Covid partying

Unis are working with the police to punish students who get caught breaking Covid rules

3 years ago | UPDATED 3 years ago

Unis have dished out over £60,000 in fines to students for breaking Covid rules since the start of term, The Tab can reveal.

Stats obtained by The Tab show how hard unis are cracking down on students determined to party and hang out in groups larger than six.

In the most severe punishment given, five Leicester students have been temporarily suspended from uni for partying in halls. Students at Brookes have been hit with a total of £18,950 in fines since the start of term, followed by Royal Holloway’s £8,200.

Unis are even working with the police to punish partying students. Nottingham student Lucy (not her real name) was at a friend’s house with 15 people when the police turned up. “When the police knocked the guy who opened the door closed it on them, for some reason,” she told The Tab.

A few people gave fake names to the officers who came in, but those who gave real names were fined £100 and had letters sent to their home addresses by the police detailing the fines.

“My friends have quite strict parents so have been having to get siblings to open these letters,” Lucy said, but added her parents were chilled about it.

She thought that’d be the end of it, but later an email from the uni landed in her inbox. It said the police had told the uni about what had happened, and that she was under investigation. The email told her to reply with her account of the incident within 48 hours.

She’s one of 608 Nottingham students who have faced disciplinary action for Covid rule-breaking – the most of any uni.

“I get why they have gotten involved, but we are paying to be here,” Lucy said. “And we are being massively mugged off by university anyway for the amount we are paying. To be getting further fines just seems crazy.”

Some unis used an earlier cut-off point when replying to our Freedom of Information request, so may have lower numbers because of this. Others, like Oxford and Cambridge, had barely begun term.

Queen Mary kicked four students out of halls and made them pay £100 admin fines, and up to 174 Liverpool students have been punished for partying.

Royal Holloway is putting money collected from fines towards self-isolation meals and baskets of fresh fruit, raising the question of where these poor souls’ vitamins would come from without the brave partiers.

Yet, while some unis take a hardline approach and rack up thousands in fines, others appear to clearly be more lenient. Sheffield and Cardiff said they hadn’t punished a single student for breaking Covid rules. It’s possible they haven’t noticed a single breach of Covid rules, but not really.

Nottingham disciplined the most students of any uni – 608. Students at the uni have also been hit with hefty police fines for partying.

Brookes came in second with 340, including 20 £100 fines for second offences, while 334 Manchester students were disciplined. These were mostly first advisory notices, but also included 15 formal warnings.