Wolverhampton and Staffordshire universities in top 40 for highest crime

The Complete University Guide used official police figures to measure rates of burglary, robbery and violent and sexual crimes within three miles of college and university campuses across England and Wales.

The report's authors, Bernard Kingston and David Jobbins, have said universities should monitor and record crimes. The statistics relate to the period between May last year and April this year.

Staffordshire ranked 13th on the list of more than 90 universities and colleges, while Wolverhampton ranked 33rd.

The figures relate to all victims, not just students, so measure crime within the area a university sits in.

London's universities ranked highest for crime overall and were classed separately.

Outside London, universities in the north-west and Humberside had the highest cumulative crime rate in England and Wales, while the south-west and south-east had the lowest rate.

Staffordshire had 31.06 incidents per 1,000 population, with violence and sexual offences scoring 23.89, burglary 6.25 and robbery 0.92.

Staffordshire University said the figures had been based on the area surrounding its Stoke-on-Trent campus only, but bosses have criticised the statistics for being misleading.

Staffordshire University's vice-chancellor professor Michael Gunn said: "Far from being helpful, the tables are alarmist and misleading for those universities with campuses in cities and urban areas.

"It provides a snapshot of reported crimes within a three mile radius of university campuses – where the victims may or may not be students.

"So in our case it takes into account all crimes reported in the city centre and Newcastle as well as Shelton and Stoke town. It fails to take in our other main campus in Stafford at all."

He said he considered the university campuses to be a safe place to study and in Stoke there was an on-campus police officer.

Inspector Jason Allport from Stoke-on-Trent central local policing team, said Staffordshire Police worked closely with the university to keep students safe.

He said the university had a dedicated neighbourhood officer who regularly patrols the campuses, adding: "We accept the findings of this report, and acknowledge that the crime figure seems high.

"However, it is important to note that the figure is for a three mile radius of the Stoke-on-Trent campus and is therefore not representative of the university alone."

Wolverhampton had 26.42 incidents per 1,000 population, with violence and sexual offences scoring 16.02, burglary 8.89 and robbery 1.52.

University of Wolverhampton spokesman James Allen said the figures reflected the levels of crime in and around a big city centre location.

He said: "Surveys like these unnecessarily raise the fear of crime for students and aim to create headlines in order to promote products or services.

"The university prides itself on providing safe and welcoming facilities for students and visitors alike."

He said the university worked closely with West Midlands Police, local authorities and its own students' union in promoting safety.

Superintendent Mike O'Hara, from Wolverhampton Police, claimed students in Wolverhampton were safer now than at any time in the past 13 years, with the number of crimes reducing by almost half.

He said: "Unlike many other universities within the guide, Wolverhampton's is within the city itself and therefore this data will include offences that have taken place in the bustling retail areas and around the Molineux, an area that tens of thousands of people visit every month.

"As a city we work really hard with the business improvement district, Wolverhampton University and other partners to reduce our levels of crime and anti-social behaviour and when compared to other city's crime per thousand of population we fair extremely well."

The statistics were taken from data produced by police.uk, Ordnance Survey and the Office for National Statistics.