Jeld-Wen study exposes growing security risks in student housing

As students settle into their accommodation following the start of the academic year, JELD-WEN, the UK’s leading door manufacturer, has released a new whitepaper titled “New Lessons in Keeping Students Safer”, which reveals security concerns in student accommodation across the UK.

Following a survey of 1,000 UK students, JELD-WEN’s research found that:

• 90% of students feel safe in their current accommodation, yet 36% have experienced or know someone who experienced a break-in in the past year.
• 42% of students admit that the communal entrance door to their housing is left unlocked during the day or overnight.
• Almost half (47%) of students assume the communal entrance door to their student housing provides enough security, so they don’t need to keep their individual room entrance door locked.
• 22% of students feel the entrance door to their individual dwelling does not offer adequate security.
• 27% of students say their landlord had not upgraded door security following a break-in.

The whitepaper also explores some of the challenges and barriers to improving security in student housing, including cost considerations for housing providers, installation issues, and a lack of awareness among students about security best practice.

To address the pressing need for a sharpened focus on the role of door security in the student setting, JELD-WEN proposes several recommendations in its whitepaper, including:

• The introduction of new regulation which establishes the minimum security standards that all student accommodations must meet;
• A legal requirement for all doorset installations and maintenance work to be conducted by qualified installers, validated through a UKAS-accredited certification scheme; and
• The Golden Thread approach – now ingrained within the fire door safety category – to be more widely applied to security aspects of doorsets to build better traceability, accountability and trust

Glyn Hauser, R&D Senior Group Manager at JELD-WEN, commented: “Going to university is a rite of passage and no student should have this important life experience derailed by a break-in, which can be both financially and emotionally traumatic. While there is no silver bullet solution to burglary risk, our research shows that there is clearly more we can do to mitigate the scale of breaches occurring in the student setting.”

“In line with the recommendations presented in our paper, we believe that by implementing a standardised approach to door security and promoting greater awareness, we can reduce the security risks facing students more effectively.”

As part of its recommendations, the whitepaper also highlights how the selection of the right doorset, supplied by a reputable and accredited manufacturer is helping student housing providers to improve safety for students within their accommodation.

Lisa Ward, Product Line Manager at JELD-WEN, said: “Doorsets can not only save time and resource when it comes to installation – due to being fully assembled in the factory and arriving to the site ready to be hung – but they can also be specified in their entirety to meet various performance requirements, including those that reduce noise and the risk of theft, fire or intruders.  Being pre-assembled, doorsets requires less dependency on the joiner’s expertise, are more reliable and reduce the risk of errors as everything is tested, certified and guaranteed to be compatible.  Choosing the correct doorset is an easy and effective way to better protect students from the risk of a domestic burglary.”

The full whitepaper, “New Lessons in Keeping Students Safer”, is available for download at: https://www.jeld-wen.co.uk/about/news/student-safety-whitepaper