EXCLUSIVE
SOME DEPARTMENTS are claiming up to twelve times more than others on expenses.
The Faculty of Life Sciences has claimed over £240,000 since September and the Business School over £120,000.
However, the Medical School and Law School have claimed a paltry £21,000 in expenses, a report released to Student Direct under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed.
Thousands have been spent on "entertaining" by all schools, with nearly £800 being spent on a Christmas meal on one occasion.
Over £4,000 has been spent on restaurant bills around Manchester by the Faculty of Life Sciences alone.
Data released on the expenses claimed by the School of Social Sciences showed that over £3,500 has been spent on business and staff entertainment this year.
A lot has been spent on travel expenses claims, with conferences accounting for most of the costs.
While these expenses mainly involve travel and accommodation, some conferences cost the schools far more than others.
The Faculty of Life Sciences has eight individual claims over £1,000 for conferences over the past year.
One of the most surprising expenses found was the amount claimed for 'tuition fees' - £2,592 by the Faculty of Life Sciences alone.
The news comes in the wake of the notorious John-Lewis-List, which has rocked the public's view of how much MPs should be allowed to claim.
Some difficulty was experienced when trying to obtain the figures with all requested data arriving after the 20 working day period that the University are obliged to provide requested data in.
Data for the Law School arrived a week after the deadline, with no indication being given that the information was going to arrive late within the time limits allowed.
A spokesperson for The University of Manchester said: "All expenditure from University funds is covered by principles set out in the financial regulations.
"These are put in place by the Board of Governors and are designed to comply with all regulatory and tax requirements."
Far more disturbing than the use of University funding is, perhaps, the use of ridiculous ammounts of money to fund the Student Direct and the endless, profoundly irritating protests run by the Student's Union. A Student paper is an excellent idea, if it wasn't so full of utter gash, and student protests would be fine if they were ever going to make a difference.
In particular, the invasion of the finance meeting by the so-called "Reclaim the Uni" group recently is profusely frustrating since it now means that real change - which could have been easily addressed by taking a petition to a pre-arranged meeting with the Chancellor of the Uni - is going to be much, much harder to achieve from now on. After all, no one likes a bunch of rowdy students with their ridiculous optimism invading their nice, quiet meeting about pie charts and spreadsheets, do they now?