These are the unis where students have paid the most in Covid fines

Throughout the pandemic, universities have been issuing Covid fines to punish students who breach social distancing rules, hold illegal parties or fail to self-isolate when required to do so.

A Freedom of Information Act request has revealed that 8,000 Covid fines have been issued to students, totalling £680,000, since the start of the pandemic.

Students at the University of Reading paid the most (£86,796) followed by Leeds Beckett University students (£60,085).

In third place was the University of Bath (£48,273), followed by Northumbria University (£47,9430) and Manchester Metropolitan University (£47,850).

At St Andrews, 700 fines costing a total of £43,000  were issued to students and at the University of Liverpool, students were hit with over 500 fines, totalling £31,000.

Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, told The Daily Express: “It is absolutely unaccept­able that universities have felt it necessary to issue obscene fines and harsh punishments when the vast majority of students have been complying with the rules and doing everything asked of them throughout this ­pandemic.

“These draconian measures are not only wrong but highly ineffective. Students deserve better. We have been urging institutions to adopt a care-centred, community-led approach to tackling this pandemic, with measures that focus on behavioural change rather than creating a punitive culture that only creates further disarray.

“Students have already been exploited for fees and rent, so more ­financial detriment is absolutely not what they need right now.

“Universities should have also been providing care packages with food, household products, wellbeing materials and general necessities, and targeted educational and mental health support, at no extra cost.

“Instead, they have been trying to get even more money out of students’ distress.”

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