Royal Holloway ranked among top 20 safest universities!

re-pressed with thanks to the RHUL staff and students

A new league table published this week by the Complete University Guide on university crime statistics shows Royal Holloway to be among the top 20 safest universities in England and Wales.

Royal Holloway is ranked in 18^thplace, for having one of the lowest levels of crime during the year May 2012 to April 2013. The results are based on Police data measuring

Keeping our students safe : Helen Groenendaal, Community Liaison & Support Officer (left) and Carole Lawford, PCSO Englefield Green (right)

reported incidents of burglary, robbery and violent crime per thousand residents within a three miles radius of the university campus.

If weighed against a smaller subset of 22 universities that are classed as ‘London universities’, spanning central and greater London, Royal Holloway has a significantly lower rate of reported crime and would rank in top place as the safest university in that group, while King’s College is ranked bottom as the university with the highest level of reported crime.

The positive results highlight the commitment shared by Royal Holloway, the Students’ Union and Surrey Police in working together to create a safe and secure environment for our students and the wider community.

It reinforces the work of the Runnymede Borough Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT) and Neighbourhood Support Team both in crime prevention and crime detection which we support them with, and underlines the importance of our partnership with Surrey Police to maintain a low crime rate and minimise the risk of crime.

Helen Groenendaal, Community Liaison & Support Officer at Royal Holloway said,

“We are continually working with Surrey Police and the neighbourhood teams to cultivate a safe environment for our students to live in, whether on campus or in the local areas of Englefield Green and Egham,  and run regular high-profile campaigns around personal safety and property security. This has had a positive impact, noticeable from student feedback and in the results of surveys, and we are pleased to see how this translates into the bigger picture of universities nationally.”

Examples of joint working and best practice at Royal Holloway include:

o   Clear co-operation and assistance with Surrey Police investigations into reports of crime locally

o   Daily contact with the Safer Neighbourhood Teams by the community liaison & support office and security and recognition by the Police of this vital communication

o   Encouragement by us for the Police to be a visible presence on campus to provide reassurance and to deter criminals from coming to the area – and providing relevant opportunities for them to do this

o   Support for students who have been affected by crime in any way in conjunction with the SNT

o   Police involvement in awareness days and campaigns such as the annual Safe & Secure day

o   Commitment to regular reminders about personal safety throughout the academic year – in various media including web, eCampus, social media, student media etc. –  this helps  in managing expectation and understanding

o   Availability of free personal safety alarms to all students

o   Using the Campus Watch brand for all safety publications to increase awareness

o   An immediate and proactive response to any issues of concern from students of affecting students – such as additional high visibility patrols after an incident