Student perceptions of the Safety and Security Risk of On-campus Student Housing Facilities

In the recent times, studies conducted on the provision of student housing facility in universities in South Africa, indicate that security and safety are major issues across the universities. Hence, this paper aims to present the result of an assessment of the risk associated with the absence/lack of security and fire safety measures in the student housing facilities (SHFs) in two universities in South Africa from the students' perspective. This was done with the aim of addressing the security and safety challenges which has become problematic in most of the on-campus university SHFs in South Africa. The study adopted quantitative survey approach with questionnaire used as instrument for data collection from the students who are registered members of the SHFs from both universities. Analysis of the data was done through relevant descriptive and inferential statistics using a four-step analysis approach. The study found that the majority of SHFs at university A lack security and fire safety measures such as: CCTV, access control with functional smart-card, security alarm, smoke detectors, emergency help line, and water sprinkler system. Although the SHFs at university B had a better provision of security measures, it become evident that some important security and fire safety measures such as; access control with functional smart-card, CCTV, water sprinkler system and weapon detectors were found missing in some of the SHFs. The majority of respondent were of the opinion that absence of those security and fire safety measures pose a very high risk in the SHFs. There is no significant difference in the level of risk students attached to the absence/lack of security and fire safety measures in the SHFs across both universities. The recommendations can guide university health and safety officers (SHE unit), hostel and facility managers to make provision for adequate security and fire safety measures in order to mitigate the security and safety challenges in the on-campus SHFs.