Queen's students handed more than £50,000 in off-campus Covid fines
Queen’s University fined students more than £50,000 for breaching Covid-19 rules off-campus during the last year.
Following media reports of widespread Covid breaches in the Holylands area in September 2020, the university introduced new ‘Off-Campus Student Conduct Regulations’.
Data released via Freedom of Information requests shows that in total the university disciplined more than 500 students for off-campus Covid breaches between September 2020 and June this year.
This included Queen’s suspending 15 students for between three months and one year, and expelling one student.
The Queen’s Students’ Union has criticised the punishments issued by the university.
“Students have the right to a private life,” said Katie Ní Chléire, president of the Students Union, “and the Union is of the view that elements of the Conduct Regulations impose on that right.”
Queen’s University said “the health and wellbeing of our students, staff, and the wider community has been our main priority”.
It said regulations were brought in to ensure students would “follow public health guidance to protect themselves and others from the spread of infection”.
Under the regulations, the PSNI notified Queen’s when a student had broken Covid restrictions while off-campus and the student was automatically suspended from the university for up to 14 days.
Queen’s then investigated and reprimanded the student, the most common punishments being fines, written warnings and extended suspensions.
The regulations were revoked earlier this month, just under a year after their implementation.
Some students have questioned the university’s role in penalising their behaviour off-campus.
“If I was working in a corporate job and was fined for breaching Covid rules, the PSNI wouldn’t tell my employer,” argued Nicola, a 20-year-old student who was suspended by Queen’s in January.
“It’s none of the university’s business what students do off-campus. Queen’s is very distant from our lives until they see an opportunity to get money off students.”
Local residents in the Queen’s area, however, welcomed the university’s intervention.
“This is a public health issue and we’d want to see as many sanctions as possible against offending students,” said Ray Farley, chair of the Holyland Regeneration Association.
“Residents were seeing large groups of students on the streets and were then afraid of the spread of infection in local shops.”
The fines issued by Queen’s ranged from £30 to £500, on top of the those handed directly to students by the PSNI.
“It remains incredibly disappointing that the university continued to impose additional fines on students despite the financial hardship faced by many over the past year,” added Katie Ní Chléire.
Jude, a 20-year-old student living in the Holylands, was fined by the university last November.
“The two week suspension was justified and I obviously shouldn’t have been breaking Covid rules,” Jude admitted.
“I thought the financial punishment was a bit ridiculous though. Students struggle financially at the best of times but then on top of that a lot of my hours at work had been cut because of Covid.”
“Queen’s better put all that money to good use!”
Thomas Copeland is the Head of The Scoop