When it's not students stealing from the library (see our report on the Worst uni students for stealing library books) it's the other way round...

In the six academic years from 2004/05 universities in the UK have raised nearly £50m by charging their students late fees for borrowing books from the uni library.

Leeds University benefited the most from library fines - collecting an impressive £1.8m in six years.

Manchester Uni came second with almost £1.3m, with the University of Wolverhampton in third, raising £1.25m in fines.

"Outstanding library fines will prevent a student from graduating - at Exeter University this figure is just £5!"

At the other end of the spectrum Imperial College London collected just £26,703 worth of library fines.

Considering fines at most universities are around 10p per day per book, this shows just how many students have failed to return books after using them.

Why? We’re not so sure - are there so few books that people feel compelled to keep them so as not to miss out, or are students just inherently disorganised and lazy? Let us know your throughs in the comments section below.

Not all universities’ fines are so reasonable, however - Edinburgh Napier University charge up to £1 for every day a book is late.

While many will accuse university’s of cashing in on students need to learn, there is one uni to which this certainly doesn’t apply - the University of Westminster doesn’t fine students for late returns at all.

Instead they ban students from using the library for the length of time that the books were overdue - genius.

Other universities have introduced a point at which outstanding library fines will prevent a student from graduating - at Exeter University this figure is just £5!

Here are the universities that cash-in the most on library fines:

Rank	University	Amount raised from library fines
1	University of Leeds	£1,869,340
2	University of Manchester	£1,299,342
3	University of Wolverhampton	£1,252,253
4	King’s College London	£1,197,715
5	University of Hertfordshire	£1,147,238
6	University of Birmingham	£1,114,863
7	University of Plymouth	£1,058,777
8	University of Nottingham	£1,025,560
9	Kingston University	£1,020,753
10	University of Durham	£1,005,426

See the ten uni libraries missing the most books - one's lost a staggering amount for it's size...

• Worst uni students for stealing library books

The data was obtained thanks to Freedom of Information requests by the Press Association.

[Image: Heather Marie Kosur]