STUDENTS have complained they can’t work on Bournemouth University computers because people are spending too much time on Facebook.

The Students Union will this summer start a campaign to deter use of the social networking site in certain areas.

Polite notices will ask people to consider others and signs on the upstairs floors of the library will say those computers are needed for academic use.

Final year students had made a series of complaints to the union.

Miguel Dias, a final year Field Archaeology student, told Wire, the student paper: “I come into university at 9am to work on my dissertation, thinking I’ve beaten the crowd to the computers, and I still can’t get on them because people are on Facebook.”

The university has no restrictions on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

A spokesman said: “We support the forthcoming campaign to request and suggest students using social network sites step aside when appropriate. We would encourage any student who experiences difficulty to either approach fellow students politely or speak with members of BU staff.”

Adelaide Allen, the union vice president of communications, said: “Individual students should be able to say to their peers they need the computer, but no-one is going to police it.”

Students also increasingly use Facebook for study groups and the issue is hard to police – what about students emailing each other?

The issue was debated at a Union meeting and Adelaide Allen said: “Some people were saying they don’t want it at all, and some people don’t have their own computers and want to access Facebook.”

The issue will again be discussed at the next Union General Meeting on April 28.