User Manual

3
Introduction
Education covers an extremely wide range: not only with
regard to the age of the pupils/students (from children as
young as 4 to young adults in their mid twenties) but also
to the variety of institutions (from nursery to university),
types of buildings (teaching, administration, dormitory),
and specialized rooms (from classrooms to high-tech
laboratories). The highest priority for the management
of such institutions is to provide a safe and secure
environment for both the students and the staff.
Although the life safety record of education facilities has
generally been very good there is no reason to become
complacent. The weak link has proved to be student
accommodation, where sadly human behavior has led to
a number of unnecessary fatalities over the past twenty
years.
For maximum protection, a comprehensive fire safety
system is needed to ensure personal safety and damage
mitigation in case of fire. The cornerstone of such a
system is a fire detection system that guarantees early
and reliable fire detection and activates the alarm devices
and the relevant fire safety controls. To ensure adequate
fire safety standards, national and regional directives have
been established in the vast majority of countries.
Personal safety is generally regulated by laws and official
requirements, while the protection of material assets is
mainly determined by the guidelines and directives drawn
up by insurance companies. Fire incidents not only result
in financial losses, they can also severely damage the
reputation (and income) of a university.
The size and complexity of higher education facilities,
together with the diversity of the courses offered, means
that there can be no single solution that is appropriate in
all cases. Special attention should be given to critical
areas where many people are present and areas with
significant deceptive phenomena, heat sources and large
fire loads such as event venues, high-tech laboratories,
libraries, electrical plant rooms and student
accommodation.
The number of buildings involved in universities and the
diversity of their use present a considerable challenge to
the management of such institutions. In some cases we
might be talking about the development of a completely
new university campus on a greenfield site, where a
coordinated approach can profit from the synergies of the
various building management disciplines. However, in the
great majority of cases we are more likely to be faced with
the integration of a single new building or the
modernization of an existing one. Such an extension can
provide a suitable opportunity to take a fresh look at the
current organization and examine how the efficiency of
the management process could be improved.
Although not in the focus of this document, university
campuses around the world are increasingly making
headline news for security reasons (e.g. shootings,
terrorist attacks, demonstrations, etc.). The installation
of a surveillance infrastructure that can provide security
staff with the best possible means of dealing with such
eventualities must be given careful consideration. The
integration of the fire protection systems together with
these security-based systems (and controlled from a
common management station) is rapidly becoming an
essential requirement.
“An investment in
knowledge pays the
best interest”
Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)