Rank: Forum user 
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Hi all,
After a bit of help/advice if I may please.
Firstly does anyone have or know of a decent safety audit as well as one for a fire risk assessment for use at a University? in the sense that its tailored for that environment rather than a generic type which I already have.
Secondly would anyone have any experience of what are the main areas of concern, main areas of safety to concentrate on, problems encountered etc.
Any responses would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.
Regards
Russ
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Gosh, universities, well. I suppose it depends on the University but here's a few things I know about:
First there are the common and obvious hazards, think slips, trips and falls, manual handling, DSE, access & egress and so on. Then there are some particular areas of concern that might apply:
COSHH/DSEAR and materials handling
Radiation
Hot works
Scaffolding and construction in general (my mate is a prof in engineering at Leeds and they had a wall collapse, they'd built it as part of a civils course)
Bio-hazards
High voltages
Violence and aggression
Numerous lone-working type issues
Driving & vehicle hazards
Woodworking
Grounds management issues
There must be others but that's a start at least,
John
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Rank: Forum user
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Having worked in a University before I retired you will find that to list a full range of Hazards and Risks that need to be risk assessed would be almost endless
The areas that need risk assessed will depend on the range of work and research being carried out. You will find that every university will be unique in that respect.
Equally the location of the university will influence this. A city centre university with public roads running through it will be very different to a campus location.
The arrangements for housing students vary. Some universities will house upwards of 4000 students in university managed and owned residences some will have none
If you have a particular university in mind I would suggest you contact their Safety Advisor there.
To my best knowledge I do not know of any UK university that has not appointed a in house safety advisor.
JWK has covered many areas but one I would add, from personal experience, is the “Academic Mind Set”.
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Rank: Forum user
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I should have said Risk Assessed and Audited in my response
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Rank: Super forum user
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Most Universities are like small towns and contain every hazard you can think of (and some that only occur in your worst nightmares!). What you will have to deal with in a particular job at a Uni depends on lots of things including how the H&S system is managed. In many older unis traditionally each department with have its own safety officer, usually a senior staff person with an interest in H&S eg the chemistry department will have senior chemist who deals with chemical risks, microbiology department a microbiologist etc. unfortunately this means that those universal hazards such as slips trips and falls are often ignored. In such set up the main H&S bod deals with the facility based health and safety and might have little contact the with departmental H&S people.
More forward looking institutes have a more centralised team of H&S professionals dealing with all the hazards/risks across the organisation.
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Rank: Super forum user
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