Higher Education Case Study

The Security Challenge for University Campuses…
multiplied many times over!

One of the biggest challenges in the Higher Education Sector must be the University of London with their huge number of sites. To add to that, with so many stakeholders willing to express an opinion, this is not a place for the faint-hearted Facilities Manager.

Their requirements cover a wide range of manned guarding security activities: manning the CCTV Control Room; patrolling officers across the campus; car park attendants; a security enquiries team and reception duties. This demands a truly multi-functional security team.

In an open environment like a university campus with considerable numbers of people moving around for a wide variety of reasons, the role of the patrolling officers is high profile. This is considerably more demanding than a standard reception in a commercial environment.

The morning usually starts with the task of moving on the 'rough sleepers'. For this, a friendly approach goes a long way, but has to be backed up with the willingness to be firm when required. Later there is the task of handling illegal parking on multi access sites; and the officers have to be ever-mindful of the increasing threat from potential drug pushers.

This requires a significant involvement with the police to ensure that dealers are moved on.

The CCTV Control Room has 20 cameras around the precinct and is in constant contact with the patrolling officers.

Given the location in central London there is the need for constant vigilance to reduce the risk of thefts. From the need to close windows, avoid cash and valuables being left in empty rooms, to keeping doors locked, there is a requirement to work closely with both students and academic staff.

Security officers have to be paying attention to both the premises and the people moving in and out. Checking identity in such an environment provides a particular challenge that requires firmness and sensitivity.

With as many as 1000 students at a time in the library at Senate House, striking the balance between security and being welcoming is important, as no-one wants to put them off using the facilities by challenging them too often.

The students themselves pose a rather different challenge to that faced by officers dealing with professional visitors for example.

For some students, this is their first experience of leaving home and of living independent from the support of parents. For others they are a long way from the environment in which they grew up. This means that the security officers are frequently expected to assume elements of the parental support role. As an example, some students seem to think the officers are the source of all non-academic knowledge!

Students can vary in age from 18 to almost 80 and come from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Given their support needs, this requires a degree of flexibility in terms of interpersonal skills rarely required elsewhere.

This is where the enquiries team have such an important role. They have to be "all-singing, all-dancing", and are expected to behave in a security manner, yet be very welcoming.

SectorGuard, who are the approved provider of Security Services for the London Universities Purchasing Consortium, provide the security for the University. So how do SectorGuard cope with these challenges?

Jim Mcleod, SectorGuard’s Director of Operations says "The officers clearly have to be more multi-skilled than some and therefore they receive specialist training".

"The contract requires significant levels of management input to ensure that issues are dealt with quickly and smoothly. SectorGuard are in daily contact with the people on the ground and hold weekly meetings with the facilities team".

"There are formal meetings on a monthly basis to review how day-to-day issues are being addressed. These are supplemented by quarterly reviews to ensure that longer term issues and suggestions for improving security arrangements are also addressed."

"Having responsibility for all the colleges in the precinct ensures continuity of communication and support, and enables the colleges to work together collaboratively".

"We believe that the key to success in this environment is to be responsive to changing requirements and to implement changes quickly" he comments.

For more information on SectorGuard’s involvement in the Higher Education sector, contact the Sales Team on 01992 701950 or e-mail sales@sectorguard.plc.uk.