Hi, as part of a small project I am trying to compile what would be perceived as the top five hazards/risks within a higher education setting such as a university, I appreciate that a lot could depend on the particular specialisms and courses offered by the establishment, however, I was looking at a more generic type of approach to start with then filling in the specifics later. I would be very grateful for any pointers in the right direction, many thanks.

I'd start off with Fire Safety?

Without wanting to lower the tone you may wish to also consider the Health issues of Alcohol, Drugs and promiscuity, which may or may not be relevent. Take Care

El Tel there was recently a request from the HSE to Scotlands Colleges and one of the questions was 'What are the greatest health and safety risks in your college – tell us about your top ten risks/priorities' From the replies received, it was extremely difficult to produce a definitive/sequential list of priorities as respondemts came from different areas. There was a summary report submitted in response to this request and the findings were as follows. 1. Health and safety management in high risk subjects, e.g. construction, engineering and catering (this also includes working with machinery) 2. Stress (wellbeing in general) 3. Slips, trips and falls 4. Occupational health issues including DSE, noise, vibration, dermatitis and asthma 5. Fire 6. Musculoskeletal disorders 7. Managing contractors 8. COSHH 9. Student placements 10. Competency of staff Hope this helps

I would agree with some of the other postings that voilence/drugs/general criminal activity has got to be the highest risk facing students. Universities provide access to a large number of young people some the first time away from home and they are easy tagets for criminals. These young people come to univerisites with a raft of electronic gadgetery that is easily stolen and sold on. Again criminals actively target the student population to supply drugs and again they are a captive audiance with a ready supply of money (at least in the first few weeks). Fire safety is a concern but most Universities have good alarm systems well maintained with robust risk assessments in place and are being overseen by the Fire Service and in reality the risk of a fire causing injury is thankfully very low.

I personall feel that stress would be high on the list

Risk taking by those who think that they know it all and believe that they are invincible e.g. Drunken students climbing on roofs - Please note; it and similar things do frequently happen Other risks include 'suggestions' [either suggestive or blatantly open and forward] put to maintenance workers by young people who are released from home for the first time is a high risk area - some staff I used to manage called one dorm the 'baby-doll' area and would not work alone in that building as in the past workers had been put in certain positions where they had no witnesses to help defend them - this is also not a one-off situation