Towards safe campus environments through environmental design: two universities as case studies
Journal Title: Challenges of Modern Technology - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 4
Abstract
Universities are often considered to be safe sanctuaries. However, many higher education institutions have increasingly been confronted with crime and unrest. Violence and other crimes on campuses are currently an international concern. This paper reports on a study that investigated student’s perceptions of safety on two campuses namely Lahti University of Applied Sciences in Finland and the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Theories from Environmental Psychology and Urban Planning are combined in this study in order to incorporate aspects of the individual, social setting and spatial environment. Increasing people’s safety help to optimise their experience of their environment and can in turn create an enabling context for people to flourish and improve their quality of life. The research followed a qualitative research approach. In this study, 21 participants from a Finnish university and 16 participants from a South African university were selected through purposive sampling. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews supported by visual data of the spatial environment. All data were transcribed verbatim and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The literature and findings of the research both support that the spatial and social environment influences safety. It is therefore recommended that safe campus environments require a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach to proactively develop a Comprehensive Safe Environment Plan (CSEP). From a planning perspective, students’ perceptions of campus environments’ safety may include the creation of compact dedicated campus areas, land uses, building placing and orientation, territoriality, landscaping, visibility, control over fear-inducing activities, maintenance, security measures and pedestrian orientated areas.
Authors and Affiliations
Stephanus Coetzee, Karen Puren
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP263724
- DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0010.8799
- Views 71
- Downloads 0
Implementation of modified additive lagged Fibonacci generator
Generator of pseudorandom bit sequence with increased cryptographic security, which is based on additive lagged Fibonacci generator, is developed. The generator structure circuit and it work principle are described in th...
Study on Filling Patterns of Engineering Polymers in Geometrically Balanced Injection Molds
Filling patterns and imbalances which occur during injection molding of engineering plastics, e.g. Polyoxymethylene (POM), have been studied. Four different geometries of runner systems have been applied for experimentat...
Dynamic bubble tensiometry as a useful tool for assessment of physicochemical interactions of liposomal drug carriers with respiratory tract
This article presents an experimental investigation of physicochemical interactions of novel liposomal drug carriers intended for inhalation with model lung surfactant system. The research was done with the use of maximu...
Polymer Injection Molding: Advanced Simulations or Tablet Computations
Simulation of injection molding of polymeric materials is a common way of solving issues in plastic part and injection mold design. CAE software is getting more available and user-friendly, which sometimes leads to unrea...
Modification of PP membrane by acrylic acid for reducing protein fouling
This work studied modification of polypropylene membrane by acrylic acid for the purpose of reducing protein fouling. The surface morphology of the membranes was characterized by FT-IR. BSA static adsorption and tensiome...