University Security: Are you ready for your next intake of students?

University can be a rite of passage and, for many young people, it’s the first time they find themselves living away from home. Safe and secure learning and living environments go a long way towards helping new students settle in and find their feet, so campus security should be a top priority for university administrators.

Further to this though, keeping university spaces secure serves a more practical purpose – recent research shows that the crimes most relevant to students are theft and burglary.

As a fresh cohort of students prepare to start university life after the summer, it’s time to reassess your university’s access control and security measures. What should be implemented for complete security?

Restrict access to university buildings

The most effective way to minimise security risks for students and university staff is to ensure that only they can access university buildings. Whether your campus areas are scattered throughout a busy city centre or a grouped together as part of a self-contained block, physical access control can limit who can enter entire buildings or specific areas within them, at set times or for selected periods.

Electronic turnstiles act as a safeguarding system for buildings with wide entrance foyers and atriums, car park barriers preserve spaces for selected vehicle owners, while existing doors can be fitted with easily-integrated wireless electronic access locks. Each authorised individual can be issued with an ID badge for one-swipe access, and badges can be configured to grant personal levels of access that vary from person to person – differing areas for students and lecturers, for example. What’s more, system software enables simple updates to access areas for users, as and when they’re needed.

Or, for even tighter access control, biometric readers can negate the need for ID badges altogether. With fingerprint scanning in operation on campus, you can ensure the highest levels of security for the areas of the university that need it most.

Keep a watchful eye on and off campus

University security doesn’t have to stop once students and staff leave campus buildings. Coupled with access control, CCTV can provide essential peace of mind for students and their families when it comes to student accommodation, as well as publicly-accessible external areas on and around campus.

An integrated closed-circuit TV (CCTV) system can give you real-time visibility both in and outside of your premises around the clock, thanks to HD and MegaPixel picture quality, the ability to zoom and instant playback. Stored video footage can be accessed quickly and easily in the unlikely event that an incident does occur, and if your university has a central monitoring station, real-time feeds can stream a complete view of campus activity in all weather conditions and from any distance.

Monitor visitors on site

Of course, every university needs the freedom to permit visitors, such as contractors and prospective students, while also maintaining security standards. An intuitive security system should allow you to issue temporary access for those visiting your campus, through temporary visitor badges that can be pre-programmed to expire at a certain time, or cancelled at a moment’s notice.

Interim ID badges can also enable you to track your visitors and their vehicles as they move around the campus, giving you a full picture of people on site from building to building – vital in the event of an emergency.

A cohesive approach to university security

Whatever security measures you implement within your university, it is imperative that they work together. Isolated systems can only ever leave you exposed to security weaknesses, so opt for a complete solution that incorporates every aspect of facility, personnel and visitor access control.

At Touchstar, we have extensive experience working with university management teams in helping them create safe and secure surroundings for everyone on campus. Get in touch with us to find out how we can do the same for your university.