Crime watch: How secure is your university city?

Mothers and fathers, as well as potential students, take note. The most crime-ridden university city in the United Kingdom outside the capital is Nottingham, according to figures published today.

The town, once known for its links to the legendary outlaw Robin Hood and his Merry Men, contains two highly rated universities (Nottingham and Nottingham Trent), yet the total number of burglaries, robberies and violent attacks is higher than in any other provincial UK city.

Nottingham recently acquired a name for being the gun capital of the UK, a moniker that its citizens reject. It is, however, the burglary capital of the country, according to new statistics compiled by the Complete University Guide from Home Office. Students, in particular, are vulnerable to being burgled.

Runner-up in the crime stakes for university cities is Manchester, followed by Liverpool, Bristol and Leeds. The safest places in which to study are Canterbury, Bath and Lancaster.

"The issue of safety is of growing concern to students and their parents, and it is important that they know the situation in their chosen university cities," says Bernard Kingston, founder of the Complete University Guide. "Our statistics are compiled from official police data, and while not perfect, give a more realistic picture than you might get from scare stories in the media."

The table summarises crime rates in 24 towns and cities, excluding London, that contain two or more universities. The English cities are kept separate from those in Scotland, because the information is collected differently. Local statistics on crimes against students are not available, and universities do not have to make public data about crime on campus as they do in the United States, so the information collected by the Complete University Guide is all that anyone has to go on.

Britain lags behind the US when it comes to reporting crimes affecting students. In the States, all colleges and universities are required to report the number of crimes on campus each year and what measures they are taking to improve security.

This law came about after a horrendous attack at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 1986, when Jeanne Clery, 19, was raped and murdered in the middle of the night by a stranger, another student, who had entered her hall of residence to burgle. The killer had been able to gain access to the building because the doors had been left open to allow everyone to come and go freely.

Her parents sued and launched a noisy campaign for a new law. In an out-of-court settlement, the university agreed to spend $1m on installing a new security system. The Clery Act followed, which forced American universities to address the problem of security on campus.

Universities are no longer the havens of safety and security they once were. Around one in three students falls victim to crime each year, according to reliable surveys. In addition, young people aged 16 to 24 are three times more likely to be victims of burglary than people in other age groups, which makes students all more vulnerable.

Today's undergraduates may feel poor, and they may actually be poor in absolute terms, but they are richer than the rest of the population when it comes to high-value consumer goods such as mobile phones, TV sets, DVD players, BlackBerrys and laptops, digital cameras and mp3 players.

Thieves breaking in to university accommodation that houses, say, five students could net a tidy haul of five TV sets, five stereos and five computers. And such items can be sold on easily, providing rich pickings to any burglar.

Why are students more vulnerable to crime than the population at large?

The answer may lie in their lifestyle. Students live in multi-occupied housing, often in run-down areas, where they are more exposed to crime than if they lived in more salubrious districts. Their properties are not always very secure either, because their landlords may not have bothered with locks and alarms or because the students themselves have not acted responsibly by closing windows and locking doors.

One survey found that six out of 10 crimes were repeat experiences for the victims, which means that some students are being burgled or robbed or assaulted time after time.

That is why both the Home Office and the National Union of Students urge students to take out insurance and report crimes. And it is also why universities in the UK are now putting a lot of effort into improving security on campus by, for example, ensuring halls of residence have proper locks and lighting the campus properly. We print a list of tips for students on the page opposite.

This year's Complete University Guide table shows that the positions of most of the universities has not changed since last year. Nottingham had the highest crime statistics of all cities last year, and Manchester was the runner-up last year, too.

Kingston consulted the Home Office in his research and was told that the three types of crime to which students are most likely to fall victim are burglaries, robberies and crimes of violence against the person. He took the figures for these categories from the official recorded crime figures to compile his table.

Jonthan Ray, director of public affairs at Nottingham University, rejects the notion that the city was a particularly high-crime area.

The statistics covered only a small, inner-city area of Nottingham, he says. But many students live in the leafy suburbs, so are not subject to the same risks. "Nottingham is as attractive and as safe as any of the UK's big cities," he adds. "This is another example where statistics are compiled that don't give a complete picture. The city of Nottingham is not the same as Greater Nottingham, where much of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University are housed."

Manchester University declined to comment on Manchester coming second in the table.

Nottingham made clear that they encourage students to use anti-crime marking spray on their property and to attend talks given by the police on personal safety and security. They have also written to all landlords to ensure student accommodation is as safe as possible.

If you want to look at crime statistics for university towns and cities not covered in the table, go to the Home Office's website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0607.html. Click on Crime and disorder reduction partnerships – recorded crime for key offences 2005-06 to 2006-07.

More information on the league table is on the Complete University Guide website: www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk

'I was never burgled in Nottingham, but 70 per cent of the students I knew were'

The district in which students rent rooms in Nottingham is surrounded by an area of deprivation and high unemployment, according to Lewis Proudfoot, 24, a Nottingham graduate. This explains why students there are so vulnerable to crime. In his first year, Proudfoot lived in a self-catered flat. He had a window smashed but no one was able to enter because of the bars on the windows. In his final two years he lived in Kimbolton Avenue, which became notorious for crime. He was not burgled during this time, but someone did break in to his car. After graduation, he moved to an area on the edge of the city and again became a victim of crime when a burglar entered his house. He moved back in to the student zone and once more found himself the victim of a burglary. But he never felt unsafe in the city, he says.

Beka Diski, 22, another Nottingham graduate, says that everyone talked about crime because at that time the city had become famous for gun crime. "But coming from London I never felt unsafe," she says. "It's quite hard to feel that Nottingham is more dangerous than London. I was never burgled, but 70 per cent of the people I knew were."

Ten tips for a crime-free uni life

1. Carry a personal alarm – even if you are a man. Figures show that male students stand a higher risk of being attacked

2. Try to avoid walking home in the dark. Failing that, keep to well-lit and busy streets

3. Watch for people crowding round you when you use a cash machine

4. Be suspicious of emails and phone calls that request too much personal information

5. Keep a record of card details and the serial and model numbers of expensive electrical equipment

6. Mark your possessions with a UV pen – your student registration number plus the initials of your university

7. Avoid using your mobile in isolated places. When you are out, switch your phone to vibrate mode

8. Carry your laptop in a sports bag rather than a laptop case

9. Make sure your doors are fitted with a Yale-style lock and five-level Mortice deadlock. Fit downstairs windows with locks

10. Ensure that your insurance is enough to cover the theft of personal belongings

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