Case Study: University of Plymouth – Student Union
November 17, 2025
The Client
Plymouth University Student’s Union provides representation, entertainments, sports and societies, volunteering opportunities and advice to all, as well as provide a nightlife scene through events and nightclub.
The Challenge
Previous risk assessments were lacking the fundamentals as detailed in the Fire Safety Order, with many issues of compartmentation being overlooked and just a broad statement added to the executive report at the end. Due to these issues not being raised, the university’s health, safety and wellbeing manager had lost buy-in from the Management and Landlords to get these issues addressed. Plymouth University were looking to find a greater detailed comprehensive, evidence-based fire risk assessment.
The Solution
QVR brought a professional and thorough approach to managing and carrying out fire risk assessments across the buildings campus. In the first instance providing the University with access to the QVR portal allowing performance monitoring whilst assessments were being carried out.
The Outcome
The University are now able to view all FRAs via the QVR portal only 24 hrs after the fire risk assessor has completed them, with in-depth information and ease to navigate around the system. The University are able to quickly identify and view highest risks, accompanied with photographs as evidence. Each risk identifies the fire category, the root cause and whether it is a risk to life or business continuity risk. From the portal, the University are able to raise remedial works to the appropriate contractors, monitor the progress and sign off works allowing a complete audit trail. The University are also able to upload all compliance certificates and policies for each building, negating the hard copy requirement.
Due to the in-depth detail of the FRAs, the University’s Health, safety and wellbeing manager is now able to gain the required buy-in from the landlord to get the remedial works completed. The University are also benefiting from the ability to be able to carry out FRAs themselves, which works perfectly for their industry.
