West Midlands students have been hit with fines of more than £1.5 million in just two years for overdue library books, figures reveal.

Penalties totalling £1,562,673 were handed out to students who failed to return their library books during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years.

Students at the University of Birmingham – which charges up to 50p an hour for some overdue items – were hit with fines totalling £468,000, while Birmingham City University students were charged just under £350,000 over the same two-year period.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the University of Birmingham was still owed £71,000 from fines issued over the two years, despite waiving £151,000 for reasons including illness, bereavement or error.

A total of £73,282 – more than a fifth – of fines also remain uncollected at Birmingham City University for 2008-09 to 2009-10.

Dora Meredith, president of the University of Birmingham’s Guild of Students, called on universities to ensure that any fines issued were “proportionate”.

She said: “At a time when students are facing increasing levels of debt, it would be worrying to see additional costs falling to students. While we appreciate why fines are necessary, they must be proportionate.‘‘

A spokesman for the University of Birmingham said funds raised by fines went into the university’s central budget to “improve facilities and services”.

The university also negotiates with students in financial difficulties who still need to borrow books.

The spokesman said: “Library Services lends books to university students for set periods depending on the category of item and the status of the borrower.

“To encourage borrowers to return books before or on the due date, for the benefit of other members of the university, there is a fines system in place to collect a fee based on the categorisation of the item by loan period and the period of time between the due date and the return date for the item.”

A spokesman for Birmingham City University said fines were waived for students in “difficult circumstances” such as illness or bereavement, and that the university “worked hard” to ensure students avoided fines by sending out reminder emails and running a 24-hour renewal phone line.

Students at the University of Wolverhampton were hit with a hefty £448,335 worth of fines, £67,140 of which remains outstanding.

The university said it also sent out reminders to students, and funds from from fines were reinvested to buy “additional resources for the benefit of all users”.

Newman University College in Bartley Green fined 43,843 students a total of £62,578.

No-one from the university was available to comment.

The University of Warwick also recorded £106,498 in library fines in 2008-09, which increased to £128,032 in 2009-10.

A university spokesman said a higher level of fines from October 2009 was largely responsible for the increase in total fines, and that the cash was spent on new books and academic journals.

The spokesman said: “In October 2009 the charges were increased slightly to encourage users to return items and thereby improve the circulation of the stock.

"The increases were comparable with other key universities and focused on the higher use items such as items from the short loan collection, three-day loans and recalls.”

Figures for Aston University were not available.