A door manufacturer’s survey of 1,000 UK students found that most, 90 per cent of students feel safe in their accommodation, yet more than one in three, 36pc have experienced or know someone who experienced a break-in in the past year.
Some 42 per cent of students admit that the communal entrance door to their housing is left unlocked during the day or overnight. Almost half (47pc) of students assume the communal entrance door to their student housing provides enough security, so they don’t need to keep their room entrance door locked. About one in five, 22pc of students feel the entrance door to their dwelling does not offer adequate security. And about a quarter, 27pc of students say their landlord had not upgraded door after following a break-in.
The paper by JELD-WEN explores some of the challenges and barriers to security in student housing, including cost for housing providers, installation issues, and a lack of awareness among students about security best practice. JELD-WEN proposes several recommendations, including: new regulation to set minimum security standards that all student accommodations must meet; a legal requirement for all doorset installations and maintenance work to be conducted by qualified installers, validated through a UKAS-accredited certification scheme; and a ‘Golden Thread’ approach – now ingrained within the fire door safety category – to be more widely applied to security aspects of doorsets to build better traceability, accountability and trust.
Glyn Hauser, R&D Senior Group Manager at JELD-WEN, said: “Going to university is a rite of passage and no student should have this important life experience derailed by a break-in, which can be both financially and emotionally traumatic. While there is no silver bullet solution to burglary risk, our research shows that there is clearly more we can do to mitigate the scale of breaches occurring in the student setting.
“In line with the recommendations presented in our paper, we believe that by implementing a standardised approach to door security and promoting greater awareness, we can reduce the security risks facing students more effectively.”
The paper suggests the selection of the right doorset, supplied by a reputable and accredited manufacturer is helping student housing providers to improve safety for students within their housing.
Lisa Ward, Product Line Manager at JELD-WEN, said: “Doorsets can not only save time and resource when it comes to installation – due to being fully assembled in the factory and arriving to the site ready to be hung – but they can also be specified in their entirety to meet various performance requirements, including those that reduce noise and the risk of theft, fire or intruders. Being pre-assembled, doorsets requires less dependency on the joiner’s expertise, are more reliable and reduce the risk of errors as everything is tested, certified and guaranteed to be compatible. Choosing the correct doorset is an easy and effective way to better protect students from the risk of a domestic burglary.”
The paper, “New Lessons in Keeping Students Safer”, is available for download at: https://www.jeld-wen.co.uk/about/news/student-safety-whitepaper.
