Only four of 143 universities publish information on crime. Now, there are demands to make them

When Nigel Herring received a call at 3.30am from his daughter Lydia, a student at Salford University, he knew something was wrong. She had returned home from a night out with her housemates to find they had been burgled: one bedroom had been ransacked and all their laptops were gone.

“Hearing her panicking and crying and knowing we were two hours’ drive away made us feel so helpless,” says Herring, a bus driver and part-time firefighter, who lives near Whitby, North Yorkshire.

When Lydia started as a fresher a year ago, Herring says he felt able to relax because she needed to use a key card everywhere on campus, and security guards were very visible. Her second year was different: “When we visited the house to help her move, I did think there were a lot of trees and shrubs round it. But you’ve got to let them make their own decisions,” he says.

Now the Complete University Guide, an independent guide to UK universities, is urging the Office for Students (OfS) to consider compelling universities to collect and publish statistics on crimes, including burglary, assault and bike theft, so students and parents can make more informed choices.

Salford University is unusual in the sector because it already publishes monthly data on its crime rates – which it says are much lower than most of its competitors.

Salford’s chief security officer, Trevor Jones, himself the father of a first-year student, says security doesn’t stop at the campus gate. Students can use the emergency messaging app Callmy if they are scared anywhere in the city, which connects instantly to Jones’s control room. If they are being followed, they can shelter in a number of shops, cafes or pubs under a safe-haven scheme. Jones runs regular sessions teaching students to be streetwise and protect their homes.

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“When students come back after the holidays we’ll be sending out reminders saying if you’ve got new phones or laptops for Christmas, look after them. We advise students how to look after belongings and to watch out for phone snatchers,” he says.

Privately, urban universities say any league table of crime on campus would be unfairly skewed against them. And campus-based universities argue their students are more likely to report crimes to the university in the first place, because they are aware of the security team.

The Complete University Guide sent freedom of information (FOI) requests to 143 universities asking about crime rates on campus, and how they monitor them. They found 31 universities did not collect central information about crime on campus, while 77 did – but only four said they made this information public.

Dr Bernard Kingston, chair of the CUG guide, who wants to see the OfS intervene, says: “In our discussions with universities there has been a clear view that crime data would not be actively published for fear of reputational damage. However, the same argument could be made for many other types of information about universities.”

Dr Dominique Thompson, author of a new parenting guide, How to Grow a Grown Up, and a university GP for nearly 20 years, says students need to learn quickly when they get to university – but not all do.

She points out, for example, that several student burglaries often happen in the same street in one night. “The police say this is because burglars will sit outside watching while everyone is getting ready for a night out, and then go in when they’ve seen all the houses emptying. Obviously, coming home to a door that’s been kicked in can be pretty traumatic, and students then worry the burglars will return.”

Thompson denies universities are hotbeds of crime, but says: “Students may not want to talk about security as it’s a bit frightening, but it is a conversation parents need to have.”

Although universities compile their crime data in different ways, the new FOI responses suggest real variation in crime levels across the sector. Levels of violence recorded at some universities were higher than elsewhere. For instance, the University of Essex recorded 54 acts of violence in the two years from 2016 to 2018, and both Kingston University and the University of Surrey recorded 43 acts of violence. By contrast, Bournemouth University recorded no acts of violence over those two years; Huddersfield University recorded fewer than five, and Salford recorded four incidents which it categorised as “assaults”. However, what is included may vary, with some universities including threatening behaviour or verbal assault under the category of violence.

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A spokesperson for Essex says the university is open about student safety and provides support to students as well as working closely with police across its three campuses. But, she says: “We are concerned that any comparison between universities would be misleading. Comparing campus universities, often spanning hundreds of acres with large numbers of residential students, with a city-centre university, is almost meaningless.”

Kingston University says the latest police data show Kingston is one of the safest boroughs in London. “The university takes the personal safety of its students and staff very seriously.” This includes police attending the freshers’ fair to advise on safety, a 24-hour security service, and CCTV across all sites.

The University of Surrey says the safety of students and staff “is a top priority for us” and crimes are treated “extremely seriously”. “Our highly visible and approachable security team operates 24 hours a day all year, actively encourages reporting of crimes and contributes to us being recognised by students as one of the safest places to study in the UK.”

Bike theft is a big issue at many universities, reflecting a wider national problem. According to their FOI responses, Leeds University recorded 257 bike thefts between 2016 and 2018; Nottingham University recorded 242; and the University of Manchester 238.

A spokesperson for Nottingham, which publishes all its crime statistics in an annual security report, says: “We meet regularly with the local beat sergeant to discuss how we can assist in the arrest of prolific known offenders, and support the police at a time when it is facing increased pressure on resources.”

The university’s security team compiles evidence, including CCTV footage, which has contributed to 36 offenders being dealt with in the courts in the past year. But, they say, the penalties for bike theft are not a sufficient deterrent.

Manchester’s spokesperson says: “The university provides a diverse range of crime reduction services, especially in relation to cycle theft. These include a subsidised cycle lock scheme and free bike registration.”

Until now the CUG guide and others have used postcode-based police data to form a picture of how safe universities are, but critics say this pulls in unrelated crimes from the local area that have nothing to do with students and staff.

Andrew Wootton, director of ProtectEd, which accredits university security and safety services, wants universities to collect statistics on student crime victims so they can understand what is happening. But he feels pressuring them to publish is unnecessary.

“The bigger issue is how universities prevent these problems. More than two-thirds of students are under 24, so that means huge numbers of young people away from home for the first time. Universities need to make sure they are giving them the best advice and support.”