Hi, I believe students are not made of money, should not be punished for working hard and deserve easy access to free resources such as laptops in Bradford Student Library.

The current policy: You can borrow library laptops for 2 hours, if returned 10 minutes late the user is subjected to a fine at the going rate of £5/hr.

What the library says about their £5 fine: The fine needs to be high enough to act like a deterrent, laptops are in high in demand and without consequences students who are waiting to use laptops will be waiting a longer time. The £5 cap is to prevent students fines building up to ridiculous amounts.

The current issues:

- There are not enough laptops for students to borrow, many students queue for laptops at peak times and wait for laptops or walk away from being productive.

- If a student is fined £5, they hit the £5 cap and can no longer borrow books or laptops until they have paid their fine (This is inconvenient for the students learning and often stressful when under deadlines).

- There is no warning or prompt to remind students who are deep into their work that they have gone past the 2 hour limit, before these hardworking students know it they are fined £5 for returning 10 minutes late. What if you have a disability and you cannot return the laptop in time?.

- I received several complaints from students who think this is unfair, some have genuine reasons for handing laptops late and feel nothing will change and that they have to accept this.

Interesting points:

- Staff do not get fined.

- Fines apparently go back into the library budget.

- Students who borrow laptops can't afford a laptop and are fined the price of a meal.

- Students prefer using laptops and work in a social learning environment.

- University of Leeds have £30 cap, University of York £20 cap  rather than our £5 cap that prevents borrowing items from the library.

- University of York and Hull have £1 laptop fines.

- University of Sheffield don't have fines! (This makes the library more accessible, welcoming, increases student experience when paying high tuition fees and items are auto renewed until requested students cannot use library until requested items are returned.)

Solution:

- Increase the number of laptops to meet the demand then reduce laptop fine to £1 per hour because students are not waiting to use laptops.

Other ideas:

- Students are not fined until 20 minutes late so they have plenty of time to return laptop incase they lose track of time while working hard.

- Reduce fine below £5 or increase the £5 cap so students can continue to borrow library items if they have only been fined for handing in a laptop late.

- Abolish all fines and replace with alternative following the University of Sheffield to increasing student experience, increasing use of the library and make the University of Bradford a more attractive university which will increase admissions.

Thank you for taking your time to read something a fellow student has researched and put together to make a difference to your student experience! 

Do not hesitate to contact me for queries: I.Jaffery@bradford.ac.uk