Exclusive: King’s rake in £607,327 through library fines

The Tab can reveal that since 2010 King’s has robbed students of an eye watering £607,327 in library fines

exclusive King's Library fines tuition fees

£9,000 fees aren’t the only way King’s are making a killing off students – The Tab can exclusively reveal that KCL has been raking in a huge £607,327 in library fines.

Our stats show they’ve been racking up fat stacks since 2011. Here’s the breakdown:

And it’s a fine way to make money. The numbers show that £56,092 of this has been generated at King’s in this academic year alone.

King’s took its highest taking in the 2011/12 academic year – a year that saw a mammoth revenue of £210,544.

They obviously bring their books back on time

The overall takings could pay for a whole 67 years of tuition – and comes after the news that UK universities have collectively raised a staggering £50 million in library fines.

Areeb Ullah, VP for Academic Affairs at KCLSU, told The Tab:

“Library fines are a sad but necessary reality we must live with. Wherever the money goes, it needs to be reinvested into the library itself. With that being said, the half a million fine figure brings to question the need to consider investing in more online resources to ensure the libraries are more accessible”.

And KCL is one of the greediest culprits. These stats come after the revelation that King’s is the 4th largest fine collecting university in the UK.

Even more worryingly, although a small cost individually, library fines have affected the ability of students to graduate.

Research from the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) has revealed that 75% of UK universities restrict students from graduating if they have outstanding  fines.

Nisha Arora, from the OFT, slammed this rule by saying that:

“Preventing graduation not only affects students’ educational experience but could also harm their employment prospects and ability to pay off their debts.”

The NUS, who originally raised the issue with the OFT, seem thrilled with their response. Colum McGuire, the NUS’s vice president for welfare, said:

“I’m delighted to see that the OFT has responded to our complaints and confirmed that this practice is incredibly unfair, which is what NUS has been saying all along.”