Western Cape College of Nursing

The challenge

South Africa’s Athlone Campus is home to the Western Cape College of Nursing, a sprawling complex of lecture halls and administration blocks, including four hostels accommodating 2000 nursing students.

The Nursing College had no method of limiting access to its hostels. People came and went as they liked, there was no record of who was on site and it was difficult to enforce visitor hours. Theft was a problem and reported cases of sexual assault had become a major concern. Access needed to be more secure.

The Gallagher solution

Gallagher Command Centre was chosen as the most effective system to manage access to the hostels and keep the students safe.

Gallagher’s integrated visitor management system monitors visitors and allows the college to control visiting hours. Visitors to the hostels must register at reception and have their fingerprint captured by the visitor management system. They are then granted access to only the hostel they are visiting. In the evening the system generates an alarm and reports on visitors still on site – allowing security to ask people to leave, and prevent further visitors from entering.

Fingerprint readers prevent unauthorized entry from people using lost or loaned cards, and the anti-passback measures built into Command Centre means students can’t ‘pass in’ a visitor or bypass the system, as it recognizes and records that someone has tried to enter twice.

The business value

The college has achieved significant cost savings through the prevention of vandalism and a significant reduction in reported cases of theft. Gallagher’s security solution provides a reliable way to clearly capture data, enabling Security personnel to easily find the right information for quick incident resolution. This has led to improved processes, procedures and convictions when necessary.

The combination of the new access control system and an increase in physical security barriers means they have also been able to decrease the number of security guards patrolling the facility, reducing overhead costs. Customizing and generating reports for college management is also a straightforward task, saving time and money.