A £3.6 million contract to provide security services at Bournemouth University over ten years has gone to The Shield Group. The 17,000-student uni is in the midst of a £138m transformation. The Shield Group won the contract following the recent launch of a dedicated division for manned guarding.
The company will provide 13 security guards to patrol the uni’s two campuses, where they will manage student residences and lecture halls. Responsibilities will cover static guarding, reception services, entrance protection and car park management. Security at the £10.5m student centre, called the Students’ Union at Bournemouth University (SUBU), will also be provided by the company once construction is complete.
The contract, which began on April 1, represents the eighth university for the Shield; education is an area that the firm says it hopes to develop further. With the addition of the University of Bournemouth, the fiscal size of the company’s higher education portfolio now amounts to more than £3.2m a year. Other universities Shield provide its services to include Cranfield, New York University (London), Portsmouth, pictured; and The University of West London.
Heading the project will be Stuart Macleod, Regional Director at Shield. He began his career as a microbiologist and worked in accountancy, before taking his career up at Shield, where he has worked for over 16 years in senior management. He oversees Contract Managers that stretch from Portsmouth to Wales and Scotland. Stuart said: “Following a highly competitive tender exercise, we are delighted to partner with the University of Bournemouth to provide our comprehensive customer first approach security services. We will be integrating our manpower and latest technological systems to create a safe and healthy environment across both campuses centred on the well-being of students, staff and visitors. We are looking forward to working closely with the University over the next ten years, and I am particularly proud to be leading the project. I hope to see this close partnership go from strength to strength as it progresses.”
John Roddy, Chief Executive of The Shield Group, added: “Our understanding of the very particular requirements of the education sector combined with our Total Security Solutions approach has enabled us to develop genuine partnerships with a growing number of education institutions in recent years. This is an area of special importance to us as we are fully adept to the complex needs of education and able to achieve the many challenging targets of this sector. We anticipate we will expand our presence in this field even further in the coming years.”
