The Roles of Campus Protection Services For Students’ Safety: A Case of A Higher Education Institution in South Africa

Abstract

Students’ safety and security problem have been reported as a regular problem across institutions of higher learning in South Africa. This paper departs from regularly reported cases of theft in student belongings in a South African university. The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles and involvement of the Campus Protection Services (CPS) in ensuring students’ safety in an identified institution of learning. The paper report findings obtained through the mixed methods approach which used questionnaires – with 265 cases returned and analysed with document analysis to support the quantitative results. The main findings reveal in descending order, that the main forms of campus crimes are theft, mugging, damage to property, robbery, assault, and stalking. Ascribed reasons to these crimes were administrative shortfalls, broken equipment, frequent substance abuse and students’ negligence and lifestyle. This paper recommends that campus management and security departments reach a holistic solution that brings together all stakeholder of the learning environment, thus establishing baseline policies for keeping students and their belongings safe in a typical learning environment